Tribute South West 1 – West

North Petherton 3 – Newent 13

Saturday 2nd January 2016

Report By Simon Freeman

A frustrating afternoon for Pethy who battled all afternoon but lacked the finesse to break down the determined visitors. The game was in the balance until the final moments when a penalty secured the victory and denied Pethy a losing point!

Captains comments (Damian Griffin) “It was always going to be a tough game as we expected in the festive season! It did surprise us though as to the pace of the game considering the conditions but I felt we played some good rugby but we were not clinical!! We had plenty of possession but white line fever came across and we just couldn’t get over the line. Credit to the Newent defence especially on their line. We couldn’t break them down and made some wrong decisions which cost us points! We will keep battling and training and looking forward to improving our performances!!”

In conditions you would expect for the time of the year both teams played some fluid rugby but also in phases the game went from one piece to another. Pethy made the best start as the visitors fell foul of the official who awarded the home team numerous penalties! Pethy favoured attacking with lineouts and on a couple of occasions came within a yard of the line! The slickest play saw Pethy move the ball across the park and an inside break from Gavin Hancock looked a certain try but the official called it back for a forward pass!

Pethy worked hard to keep possession as Newent looked dangerous at the breakdown and hit the collisions hard. Pethy took the lead in the 12th minute with a 35 metre penalty from Harry Roberts which proved to be the home teams only score!

The rest of the first half looked like both teams would score but fell just short until the 37th minute when Newent levelled the score with a well struck penalty!! Newent continued the momentum in the final minute of the half and caused a rushed clearance which landed in the hands of the visitors centre who strolled over from 5 metres to go under the posts for a converted try. HT 3-10

The second half can be remembered for the visitors defence which kept Pethy scoreless despite being pinned on their line for 15 minutes! Pethy varied their game with tactical kicking and a running game but couldn’t get the extra yard and on the two occasions the ball was over the line, one was dropped and the other was called back for off-side!!

Newent looked to use the ball and play their way out of trouble which tested the Pethy defence on numerous occasions but Pethy held firm until the last couple of minutes when the official awarded a penalty, Newent wisely decided to kick the points and put the game to bed in a tight well fought game.

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