Tribute South West 1 – West
North Petherton 17 – Teignmouth 10
Saturday 20th February 2016
Report By Simon Freeman
A titanic battle produced a game that never had more than one score between the teams. Both teams scrapped for any possession or momentum in front of a large crowd. The Pethy supporters played their part nearly as much as the playing squad who again played with immense pride and ambition in tricky conditions.
Captains comments (Damian Griffin) “We knew this was a must win for us and was going to be our toughest game to get us in a decent league position, we went into the game slightly too relaxed from our performance last week but to go in at half time 3 nil down with the wind and slope against us was a massive boost in confidence to start the second half. I thought both teams defended hard and we had to really work for our tries. Our discipline was no way near as good as last week and could have cost us the game at the end, I think the pressure of winning this game made us individually do some silly things but we fought hard for 80mins and came away with the important win. It was great to play like that and give the huge home crowd an entertaining day”.
The first half began with the visitors having first use of the conditions and immediately tested the home teams defence. Pethy kept their shape and order and gradually worked their way out of trouble. The opening 20 minutes was a battle of the breakdown with both teams having their preferred style of play. Teignmouth attacked using their well drilled forwards and Pethy playing a slightly wider game.The Pethy forwards were working overtime at the set piece for parity but looked slicker around the park. The Pethy backs looked dangerous in attacks and well organised in defence to nullify a powerful Teignmouth. The visitors held a slight edge with a 0-3 lead through a well struck penalty from Daniel Force.
The second half began with Pethy testing the visitors and creating pressure from all over the pitch and forcing a penalty, Harry Roberts levelled the scores.
Pethy continued the momentum with an excellent team try from their own half, Arron Gibbs picked up from a scrum to feed Jack Kohler who darted through a small gap and found Gavin Hancock who sprinted in from the 22, Roberts converted (10-3).
The visitors bounced back strongly and created their own pressure through their forwards and it was from a rolling maul that Pete Parsons scored and Force added the extras to level the scores 10-10.
The game still continued at full throttle with Pethy conceding penalties but shutting out Teignmouth. Pethy tackled superbly all afternoon particularly when they were down to 13 men. The final score was smart thinking from a quickly taken penalty and with the forwards and backs combining for Jack Kohler to power his way over, Roberts converted to complete the scoring in a highly competitive match throughout.
