South West One West

North Petherton 31 Drybrook 12

NORTH Petherton captain Damian Griffin praised his side's resolute defending after they recorded yet another league victory, this time over Drybrook at Beggars Brook, writes Simon Freeman.

Pethy ran in four tries courtesy of Griffin, Arron Gibbs, Toby Harris and Jack Kohler, while Roberts added 11 point from the kicking tee - and the captain was pleased to sign off at Beggars Brook with a win.

He said: "It was the best way to finish our last home game of the season with a huge performance like that.

"We owed it to our supporters and definitely ourselves with amount of effort and commitment we have but in the last six weeks.

"We started off slow again and it took them to score the first try for us to wake up, but once we found our feet I felt we were never going to lose the game. "We scored some brilliant tries, but what we were more proud of from that game was the immense defending.

"Drybrook came close to our line on quite a few occasions but could never cross it as we were all solid and in sync with each other. Defending our line is just as satisfying as crossing theirs at times, when it matters.

Now we are safe from relegation we can go into our final game against Bridgwater with no pressure and enjoy every moment, we aim to carry on our run of wins and finish our season on a massive high."

The opening stages belonged to the visitors who moved the ball at every opportunity and shifted the point of attack.

Drybrook dominated possession and within three minutes Pethy were a converted try down and had yet to touch the ball.

But two penalties from Harry Roberts narrowed the lead to 6-7 and early in the second half, Pethy went 9-7 up.

A barnstorming run from Brown saw him find Arron Gibbs to powered over to extend the lead to 14-7.

The next five minutes saw the best of Pethy as after some resolute midfield defending, Damian Griffin picked and set off on a 60 metre run picking his line perfectly to score under the posts, Roberts converted.

The game further improved for Pethy as straight from the kick-off, a superb run from Gibbs and a perfectly timed offload to Toby Harris saw him bulldoze his way to the line to stretch the lead to 26-7.

Drybrook again responded strongly but Pethy dug in deep to keep them out and again countered through Gavin Hancock who sprinted 60 metres before finding Jack Kohler to score out wide.

The last few moments all belonged to the visitors who pounded away and battled to the end to score the final try to complete the scoring.

Pethy take on Bridgwater and Albion this weekend in the final league game of the season, hoping to avenge September's defeat.