Tribute South West 1 – West
North Petherton 34 – Clevedon 15
Saturday 2nd April 2016
Report By Pete Woolacott
Despite the recent close defeat against Weston Super Mare, North Petherton went into this home fixture against Clevedon full of confidence following performances befitting the top half of the league rather than the bottom.
The visitors were at full strength and North Petherton knew that they would require a strong 80 minute performance in order to obtain valuable points from this fixture.
The home side started well and despite the visitors missing an early opportunity to take the lead via a long range penalty, Petherton took advantage of some miss handling within the Clevedon 22 and Nic Sestaret pounced on a loose ball to score under the post, which was converted by Harry Roberts.
Despite Clevedon having a large pack Petherton were exceptional in the scrum and dominated the early exchanges.
The visitors looked good in the loose and continued to run the ball at every opportunity, unfortunately for them, the North Petherton defensive line stood strong and a frustrated Clevedon had to resort to taking a three-point penalty opportunity midway through the first half.
The restart saw North Petherton capitalise on a great chase by the impressive Sestaret, which resulted in Clevedon losing the ball and this was picked up by the homes side’s James Taylor, who offloaded to captain Damian Griffin to score in the corner. The conversion was missed by Roberts.
Petherton began to dominate possession and should have converted two more opportunities following great work by an impressive set of forwards.
On 30 minutes with the score at 12-3, man of the match Harry Auton produced a great pass to Harry Roberts to set up Pethy’s third try in the corner. Roberts failed to convert his own try.
Clevedon continued to battle and just before half time, Dean Ashfield managed to finally breach the home defence to score under the posts. The try was converted by Kieran Hill to make the score at the interval 19-10.
Petherton started the second half well and despite early pressure could not find a way of breaking down a courageous Clevedon defence.
Toby Harris, Aiden Cotton, Carl Brown and Arron Gibbs continued to produce great runs from midfield and batter a defensive line that finally broke under sustained pressure on 60 minutes.
This was probably the home side’s best team move with a great set up by the forwards and quick hands through the backs resulting in James Taylor securing a bonus-point try.
To Clevedon’s credit they never gave up and they managed to score their second and final try on 68 minutes following some great work down the flanks, resulting in winger Oscar James scoring a good try.
The rest of the points come from Pethy with Sestaret and Jack Kohler both scoring out wide.