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St Austell 43 North Petherton 27

A HAT-TRICK from Aaron Gibbs wasn’t enough for North Petherton, as they slipped to a 43-27 defeat at promotion-chasing St Austell, writes Simon Freeman.

Playing down the slope with the breeze at their backs, Pethy made a strong start and came away with an early 3-0 lead through a Jacob Beleski penalty.

St Austell responded immediately with the first of their seven tries to take a 7-3 lead.

Pethy responded with another penalty to Beleski to reduce the margin back to a point. As was the case throughout the entire match, St Austell replied with another try to extend their lead to 12-6.

Pethy finally managed to put some phases together and eventually flyhalf Jervis Manupenu found a gap and offloaded to Arron Gibbs to score the first of his three tries.

The conversion gave Pethy a 13-12 lead, but this would be the last lead they would have in the match.

A clinical spell of rugby just before halftime allowed St Austell to run in another three tries and take a 29-13 lead into the halftime break.

There was a feeling in the Pethy camp that they could turn the lead around in the second half as long as they kept the ball in hand and moved the big St Austell pack around the field.

Twice in the second half they managed to reduce the margin to nine points, an early try to Gibbs brought the game to life and brought the score to 29-20.

The final half hour was end to end rugby as both teams pushed hard for the win.

Pethy were creating chances but some poor execution and St Austell’s ability to respond with points of their own meant that Pethy never quite got close enough to get themselves over the line.

After St Austell had crossed for their sixth try, Gibbs found space again to complete his hattrick and bring the score to 36-27, but that was the end of the scoring for Pethy.

St Austell finished strongly and a final converted try made the score 43-27, and that was how it stayed.

Playing with some new combinations and travelling to St Austell’s home ground was always going to be a tough challenge for the Pethy team, but they showed plenty of spirit and determination to make it difficult for St Austell and contribute to one of the most entertaining games of the season.

St Austell firmly deserved their victory and will now keep an eye on other results as they look to sneak into contention for promotion for next season.

North Petherton 17, Weston-super-Mare 6

LAST Tuesday night, April 8, North Petherton booked their place in the final of the Somerset Cup with a 17-6 victory over National Three South West side Weston-super-Mare.

Jervis Manupenu crossed for North Petherton as they set up a clash with another National Three side, Old Reds, from Bristol.

Old Reds had initially been beaten by Taunton in the semi-final, but Taunton have since been thrown out of the competition for fielding two ineligible players.