Bonus-point win for Pethy

North Petherton 37 Thornbury 20

NORTH Petherton scored six tries on their way to another bonus point win in South West One West, beating Thornbury 37-20 at Beggars Bush, writes Simon Freeman.

Pethy started on the attack and immediately caused uncertainty in the visitors’ defence, a strong break by Sam Williams, who linked with Greg Charlton, forcing an early penalty for Harry Roberts to convert.

Thornbury bounced back strongly and turned the home defence around with some clever chips.

The visitors moved the ball around and were comfortable in possession, winning themselves a fifth minute penalty to level the scores.

Petherton won the restart and shifted the point of attack using Tito Elisara through the middle, followed up by a couple of short drives.

Scrum-half Ben Tracey moved the ball quickly away from the breakdowns and linked well with influential Dominik Griffin, who orchestrated play all afternoon to release the back line, and Dominic Griffin, who stepped around two players in the corner and showed awareness to score under the posts, Roberts converting.

In the 33rd minute, Petherton produced their best moment when a play started in their own half by a rampaging Carl Brown, ably supported by the back row, saw the ball switch directions three times and end up with Dominik Griffin, who released centre James Carter to run over from 15m.

The rest of the first half belonged to Thornbury, who stretched the Petherton defence until it conceded a penalty, but a perfectly placed cross field kick found Ed Sheldon, who beat everyone to score under the posts for an excellent converted team try.

Damian Griffiths, Arron Gibbs and Greg Charlton added late scores for Pethy to seal a comfortable victory, but Thornbury saved the best for last as, with a broken field in front of them, Sheldon showed his turn of speed to score under the posts for another converted try.