Archie's speed earns Pethy victory

25/03/06 - Somerset One: Old Sulians 15 v 19 North Petherton

Report from the Bridgwater Mercury - By Jim Keay (sport@bridgwatermercury.co.uk)

Petherton survived a strong second-half fightback from the home side to hang on for a gritty victory in the mist and rain at Lansdown on Saturday.

Skipper and scrum-half Wayne Carter cried off in the morning with flu, but his replacement Kev Rybaruk gave his usual 100% display behind a dominant pack.

In a good game of rugby, Petherton's forwards monopolised possesion in the first half, but were continually thwarted by tremendous defence. However, after 20 minutes of pressure, fly-half Lloyd Williams chipped over the defence for speed merchant Archie Walford to beat his opposite man to the touch down.

Five minutes before half-time, following a solid line-out and driving maul on the Sulians five-metre line, flanker Ross Finlayson broke away and was helped over the line by prop Matthew Glanville. Full-back Tom Williams then made an excellent conversion from the touch-line.

Sulians should have scored themselves in the first-half, but threw a forward pass when in a three-on-one situation, leaving the score at 12-0 to the visitors at the interval.

The half-time team talk was concerned with stopping the home team's dangerous backs, but within 50 seconds of the restart, Old Sulians scored a well-worked try in the corner.

After that, it was nip and tuck, with dropped passes preventing Sulians from scoring again. Then, with 20 minutes left, an excellent penalty kick to the corner from Lloyd Williams led a concerted spell of pressure on the Sulians line, before the ball came out to Tom Williams who sold a dummy to the on rushing defence and put down under posts. Williams converted his own try to apparently put Petherton in the clear at 19-5.

However, Sulians hit back with another try wide out through their backs, and with eight minutes left only the bravery of Tom Williams in the tackle prevented a third score from one of Sulians' wide men. A third unconverted score did eventually come from the home side, again through good handling from their backs, to set up a frantic finish with just 2 minutes remaining.

In the final minutes, veteren winger Walford, playing his last match of the season before getting married, saved the day for Petherton, as he sprinted back to make the covering tackle when Sulians looked certain to score the winning try. From the resulting ruck, the ball eventually broke loose over the try-line for Ben Williams to kick dead and end the match.

Whilst Walford gave one of his best displays of the season, the back row of Miles McNeillie, Finlayson, and Matt Brown were again outstanding in an excellent display by the pack. Some of Brown's tackles were earth-shuddering.

Team: 15.T.Williams, 14.B. Williams, 13.R.Williams, 12.S.Pearn, 11.A.Walford, 10.L.Williams, 9.Ryburuk, 1.Burge, 2.Fury, 3.Glanville (Rep Frost), 4.Innalls, 5.Doyle (Rep B.Walford), 6.Finlayson, 7.McNeillie (Rep Mantyk), 8.Brown.