Report by Russell Williams
Table topping North Petherton made the long trip south to St Austell to play the team sitting 2 points adrift of the visitors and in 2nd place of Western Counties West. Petherton arrived late at St Austell which did not help pre match preparations. Despite having brushed aside Okehampton the week before, Petherton knew full well that the match with St Austell was going to be anything but easy. Petherton travelled with a strong squad albeit having rung a few changes from the week previous, with the most noticeable casualty being talisman no.8 Arron Gibbs, who was unavailable due to a sore thumb.
Playing in ankle deep grass and on a pitch that bore more resemblance to one of Lloyd Williams’ ungrazed fields rather than a well manicured rugby pitch, Petherton started off the better of the two teams, playing into a slight breeze and down the slope and it was the visitors who were first to trouble the scorers thanks to a penalty conceded in front of the posts on the ten metre line, awarded virtue of some illegal play at the ruck from the Saints forwards. Harry Roberts slotted the kick with composite ease to make the score 0-3 with just 3 minutes gone. From the restart St Austell managed to turn the ball over having first been well taken by Cox for the visitors. From the resulting attack Pethy conceded a penalty 40 metres out however the home 9 was unable to convert with 5 minutes gone.
The next 10 minutes saw play generally contained within the middle third of the pitch, with mistakes and some periods of sloppy play giving each team the chance to make their stamp on the game. It was Pethy who were generally on top in the early stages, running some well timed lines to make good inroads into the home side defence. With 14 minutes on the clock Pethy found themselves on the home side 22 metre line and with a lineout that was well take by Cox, the ball made its way quickly along the back line with Manapenu throwing a long miss pass to Carter who went on to send Hancock off into the corner for an uncontested opening try to the match. Roberts failed to make the kick from the touchline however and Pethy were 0-8 up after 14 minutes. The move showed how fragile and poorly drilled the home side defensive line was. The next few minutes found Pethy with the upper hand and putting the home side under pressure, moving the ball around the park well and finding gaps in the home defence.
On 18 minutes tempers began to flare as the home side began to get frustrated, and with players having calmed down after some pushing and shoving, the home side no. 12 completely lost the plot with Petherton’s Matt Ranson, who found himself on the wrong end of a completely unprovoked head butt in full view of the referee. This gave the ref no other option but to show the home centre a red card (his second of the season!) and St Austell found themselves a man down with 62 minutes of rugby left to play.
The sending off did not seem to affect the home side however, and they came out all guns blazing from the restart of play, being lead from the front by their pack, who went on to eventually win Saint Austell the match. The home side began to play some aggressive running rugby and dominated Pethy in the scrums, regularly turning the ball over. Pethy’s penalty count started to rise as the half went on and Saint Austell eventually got onto the score board after 27 minutes with a well taken penalty kick – 3-8. Pethy were lucky throughout the match, regularly conceding pointless penalties in kickable positions however the home side’s no.9 didn’t have the best day on front of the posts. A second penalty was however slotted after 36 minutes to send the teams into the half time break with scores close at 6-8.
Despite playing against 14 men Pethy failed to find the fluency, structure and composure in their game which had been present in previous weeks. The second half saw no change despite some words being said at half time; Pethy failed to gain the upper hand over the home side forwards who worked relentlessly to give the home side good position inside the Pethy 22 early in the second half. From a scrum the home side managed to work their way down the blind side to score a well take try out wide after 44 minutes to send the home crowd into a frenzy. The conversion was missed to make the score 11-8 and Pethy seemed to be stunned and with little to no reply.
The following ten minutes saw Pethy play some decent passages of rugby, but again mistakes crept into their game and as time went on the referee seemed to be levelling things up for the home side, as he continually penalized the visitors with some very questionable decisions. With 47 minutes on the clock, Pethy managed to retain the ball well from a line out and as the ball made itself out to the back line, Pethy’s captain James Carter linked well with Hancock out wide to go over in the corner to put Pethy back into the lead. Roberts converted a difficult kick to make the score 11-15.
Over the final 30 minutes play began to break up but it was the home side who continued to have the upper hand despite being a man down. Their forwards were the backbone, doing a lot of damage with straight line running off the back of the ruck. Despite defending well, Pethy continued to be penalized at the breakdown, but Saint Austell went on to miss penalty kicks, which if taken would have put the home side well ahead of the visitors. On 60 minutes the young referee saw fit to send Pethy’s no. 5 James Cox to the sin bin for a late hit on a home player and with numbers even the home side continued to pressurise Pethy who seemed to have no answer to the home side aggression. With 66 minutes gone, the referee awarded Saint Austell a dubious penalty 5 metres out, having penalised Matt Ranson for breaking his bind despite the fact that the scrum had wheeled around a full 180 degrees. The home side 7 was first to react, being allowed to take the penalty quickly from behind the referees back and he waltzed through to touch down just in time as covering tackles came all in vain. The conversion was again missed but the home side went 16-15 up with little time left.
Pethy did react and began to attack the home side in their half for the remainder of the match however they were unable to retain the ball for an acceptable length of time and a platform never really formed to allow Pethy to play the expansive rugby which would likely have seen them win the match. With Jamie Adams going for the far side wing, he was eventually tackled into touch, allowing the referee to blow for full time, sending the jubilant home supporters and players into hysteria.
This was a strange result for Pethy, who appeared to be the better team on the park however they never stepped up to the plate after the sending off; the visitors they were unable to compete with the aggressive nature of the home sides pack, which was essentially triggered by the sending off of their centre and they went on to win the hosts the match with a good display of rugby dominating Pethy in the scrum. This will be a much needed wake up call for Pethy who now find themselves 1 point off the top and tied for 2nd position in the league with Bideford. More commitment is required with training from players; with a week off from matches players will now have the chance to rid themselves of little knocks in order to come back all guns blazing when St Ives make their maiden voyage to Beggars Brook on December 3.
Team:
1. Mike Coles (Modrynski 65)
2. Sam Williams
3. Simon Ranson
4. James Cox
5. Sam Butler
6. Matt Ranson (Harris 70)
7. Miles McNeillie
8. Matt Brown
9. Lloyd Williams
10. Jervis Manupenu
11. Jamie Adams
12. Russell Williams
13. James Carter
14. Craig Goodwin
15. Harry Roberts
Replacements
16. Adam Modrynski
17. Tyrone Harris
18. Dave Hallaran
Tries: Gavin Hancock, James Carter
Cons: Harry Roberts (1)
Pens: Harry Roberts (1)
