South West 1 (W)

North Petherton 46, Lydney 35

MAC Taylor celebrated his 100th North Petherton appearance with two tries to help the in-form Oaks to a 46-35 win over Lydney at Beggars Brook on Saturday.

The game started in end-to-end fashion, with each side scoring two early tries - Lydney only converted one of those and trailed 14-12 before Pethy ran riot towards the end of the half.

Three more converted tries, with Harry Auton in fine form off the tee, opened up a 34-14 advantage by half-time and this was added to by another score straight after the restart.

Lydney battled back and three converted tries of their own brought them right back into contention at 41-35 down.

Pethy had the final word, however, scoring late on to finally put the result beyond doubt.

Along with Taylor’s brace, Pethy’s tries came from man of the match Greg Charlton (2), James Taylor, Mike Stevens and Dominik Griffin.

North Petherton first team manager Andrew Ford said: “We are chuffed with the result.

“We had a really good first half up the hill and then scored very early in the second half.

“Lydney then woke up and, to be fair, played some very good rugby for the next 20 minutes.

“We switched on again and did well to hold on and continue our good start to 2020.

“It was a very physical contest, which occasionally spilled over, and our pack were phenomenal - we felt we were dominant in the set piece throughout.

“It was great for Mac to mark his 100th game with two tries and there were good performances around the team.

“Having Greg Charlton back is a real boost and he deserved his man of the match award, while Alex Ogilvie captained the team and played well.”

Pethy are without a game this weekend but their second XV are preparing for a Friday night derby at their Bridgwater & Albion counterparts.