Pethy suffer a reversal in fortunes after a lacklustre display

07/03/09 - Tribute Somerset Premier: North Petherton 7 v 14 Wells

Report by Matt Angel

Still missing a string of first team regulars due to injuries, work commitments, and holidays, Pethy had to shuffle people into different positions to compensate. Pethy always knew this was going to be a tough game and weren’t going to under estimate their opponents. The attitude in the warm up and in the changing room was first class, only problem being we never took it out on the field. Sam Williams moved from his usual position as hooker to outside half, which meant Captain Lloyd Williams was moved into playing at outside centre, this also meant Matt Angel had to move from prop to start his first game at hooker in many a year.

Pethy playing up the slope and against the strong blustery wind in the first half found it very difficult to break out of their own half for the first 20 mins, matters were made worse when returning winger Ben Williams was shown a yellow card for what the referee interpreted as a deliberate knock-on inside his own 22m line. With the Pethy scrum under pressure it was always hard for the backs to have clean ball to attack with. The Petherton defence stood strong for periods in the first half but a few lapses in concentration allowed the Wells attack to exploit holes left in the defensive line and Petherton could count themselves lucky that Wells wasted 3-4 good try scoring opportunities in the first half. Pethy’s try came from side stepping captain Lloyd Williams who after a good attack by the forwards the ball was recycled quickly and spun out by Lennox and Williams jinked his way beneath the sticks, converted by fullback Tom Williams. Pethy had one more chance to score before the half time whistle and after a series of forward drives, Matt Brown running like a raging bull all afternoon, also Mike Taylor was awesome in defence (don’t think he’ll be having an Christmas card off the Wells 10) Wells conceded a penalty 10m from their line, with 2 mins to go before half time skipper Williams elected to go for a 5m scrum, in which Pethy lost against the head and the ball was kicked out of play to bring the first half to a close.

With a strong word from coaches Matt Foad and John Evans at half time, Pethy needed to step up a few gears for the second half.

With everything said at half time the players took this on board and the second half was played much better then the first, With the scrums starting to go the way of the Pethy forwards they were starting to win clean ball, but too many mistakes from forwards and backs alike proved costly as Petherton got turned over on numerous occasions, which allowed Wells to spread the ball wide and exploit those gaps that were left, with both the Wells try coming from Pethy mistakes and finished off well by the back line of the Wells team.

All in all it was a very disappointing performance by the Petherton squad, and if the team wishes to gain promotion this year, which is still in Petherton hands, there must be a reduction in the amount of penalties given away and turnovers lost.

Matt Angel had an injury to his wrist 10 minutes from time, but continued till the final whistle, after a trip to Musgrove it looks like the foreigner from the other side of the bridge may miss the remaining 4 games and will be bitterly disappointed at missing out on the chase for promotion.

A big game next week against Stothert & Pitt, who did North Petherton a huge favour in beating promotion rivals Tor by a single point at Tor.

There needs to be a huge improvement in numbers at training this week, everybody involved with the club realises that we are on the verge of something special, a lot of hard work and commitment needs to be put in by both 1st team regulars and fringe players as the next couple of weeks could decide our fate. Exciting times ahead, so let’s all try that little bit harder and remain unbeaten for the last 4 games….Tidy!!!

HT: 7-0

Tries: L.Williams

Cons: T.Williams

Pens:

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. B.Williams, 13. R.Williams, 12. L.Williams, 11. Perrin (Rep. Archer, 50), 10. S.Williams, 9. Lennox, 1. Modrzynski, 2. Angel, 3. H.Brown, 4. Coles (Rep. Harvey, 60), 5. Lees, 6. Gingell (Rep. Wolfe, 70), 7. Taylor, 8. M.Brown.