Albion prove too strong for young Petherton side

09/02/08 - Colts Friendly: North Petherton 10 v 22 Bridgwater & Albion

Report from the Bridgwater Mercury

"Winning ugly" is a useful trait for a team and Bridgwater demonstrated exactly that in this defeat of their local rivals at Beggars Brook on Saturday.

Despite having superior firepower in most areas, they were hampered by a succession of mistakes that spoilt much of their approach work.

A very young Petherton side put in a good, all-round performance against one of the strongest sides that Bridgwater have fielded this season and they never stopped battling.
Albion started confidently and were on the scoreboard early when a smart backs move involving Sam Williams, Will Kerry and Damian Griffin put John Hill into space. He finished in style, mesmerising would-be tacklers with a beautiful sidestep to score close to the posts.

The conversion attempt by Williams was well wide, but such was the Bridgwater dominance during the opening exchanges, the missed points seemed academic.
Their backs were tearing the opposition to shreds as Will Kerry and Hill both made surging breaks and Griffin spurned an opportunity by choosing to go it alone with Tom Denovan unmarked outside him.

Griffin made amends shortly afterwards when following a half break by Williams, he was on hand to collect the fly-half's superb off-load and dive over under the posts. Inexplicably, the usually-reliable Williams again missed the extra points.
Errors started to creep into Bridgwater's game and a needlessly-conceded penalty put the home side on the scoresheet. The visitors fell foul continually of the referee for a succession of technical offences.

However, before half time, Kerry, in his last game before departing for an extended stay in New Zealand, surged through the struggling home defence for another unconverted try, making it 15-3 at the interval.

In the second half, their error count started to affect the continuity of Bridgwater's game and the lack of accuracy offered encouragement to Petherton, who became more confident and started to play some good rugby.

Even a try by Tom Meredith, after a scorching break by Rob Allen, failed to settle matters as the home side continued to peg away and Bridgwater to flounder.

With the line-out misfiring and the scrummage tiring, Bridgwater experienced an uncomfortable final 15 minutes.

Pethy's persistence was rewarded with a try from Arron Gibbs, converted by Dan Pearce, which was virtually the last play of the match.