North Petherton 32, Thornbury 13

North Petherton 32, Thornbury 13

THE match started at a lively pace with both team showing their intentions with the visitors moving the ball around and committing minimal men to the breakdown, writes Simon Freeman.

In the fifth minute a superb penalty kick to the corner by Lloyd Williams resulted in an attacking lineout, which was marshalled by Sam Williams and with the other forwards in support James Cox was driven over.

Thornbury came back strongly to close the gap with a penalty but Petherton extended their lead as Tito Elisara and Gavin Hancock fed full back Harry Roberts to finish off in the corner and converted to make it 12-3.

The middle part of the first half belonged to Thornbury who bombarded the home line but gradually Petherton played themselves back into the game and with a couple of passes Gavin Hancock scored with a Roberts conversion.

The score line flattered Pethy and within a couple of minutes the visitors closed the gap to make it 19-8 at half-time.

The second half saw strong tackling from both teams and the half remained scoreless until 63rd minute when a five-yard scrum resulted in Pethy putting the squeeze on and good footballing skills from Arron Gibbs at the back resulted in the fourth Pethy try.

A dazzling counter attack from Thornbury saw them pop over the line but Petherton regrouped and Matt Angel forced a penalty to the left of the post which Roberts converted.

With both teams tiring in the last few minutes, a Petherton rolling maul saw Kyle Prescott skilfully over the line.

Final score 32-13 Man of the match was Miles McNeillie by match sponsors Harold Bult and Tony Bradford *NORTH Petherton have a Somerset Cup quarter final match against Wellington tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7.30pm. Entrance is £3.