7:20pm Sunday 21st February 2010
By Mercury sports reporter
PETHERTON travelled to Martock with only 14 players as several injuries within the 1st XV squad led to three call ups on Friday night.
However, second team coach Harley Brown made an unexpected comeback from a serious neck injury to make up the full 15.
Despite this Petherton started brightly, making inroads into Martock’s defence but poor passes and handling led to the breakdown of many attacks.
Petherton’s powerhouse second row Phil Hambley scored the first try, running in from 15 metres to score out wide. The conversion was missed by the returning Mark Sutherland-Earl.
Ten minutes later the ball went wide to skipper Ben Williams who gave an inside pass to Hambley who again crashed over to score.
Sutherland-Earl converted to make it 12-0 at half time.
The second half continued as the first had finished with Petherton’s pack securing good ball and stealing the opposition’s lineout and Nathan Murdoch winning most of Martock’s feeds in the scrums.
There were plenty of positives; the lineout and scrums performed much better and the return of several players was a welcome sight.
Next week Petherton host Chard 2nds.
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