IVEL Barbarians travelled to Beggars Brook on a glorious afternoon with a considerably strengthened side, due to their 1st XV not having a league fixture. However, they were not prepared for a dominant Petherton display from the first whistle.

The Petherton pack won all their own scrums and line-outs and stole a lot of opposition ball.

Great interplay between forwards and backs ended with Toby Harris offloading to Dan Pearce, who crashed over for the first try, but then missed a straightforward conversion.

Harris then bounced off several defenders for a superb second try, which Pearce converted.

A sloppy mistake allowed Ivel in for a try under the posts, but Petherton replied through number eight Simon Gingell.

Ahead 17-7 at half-time, Petherton had the advantage of the slope after the break but conceded the next try, when an up and under landed in goal and the bounce fell kindly for the Ivel scrum half to score under the posts.

Petherton responded with a try from inside centre Winn, but the conversion was missed, and when Ivel’s huge inside centre scored under the posts soon after, the resulting conversion reduced the home side’s lead to a single point at 22-21.

There was no panic from Petherton, however, who continued to play the better rugby and scored further tries through Craig Ardren and Lloyd Steward.

This was an impressive victory, which could have been won by an even greater margin.

Team: Pocock, Murdoch, Kearle, Long, Stewart, Ardren (Lees, 55), Harris (Duheaume, 60), Gingell, Anthony, Pearce, Steward, Winn, Potter, Williams, Sutherland-Earl.