Wells 43 North Petherton 0

In the second round of the Somerset Senior Vase Cup the city side entertained North Petherton from Somerset 1 league.  Wells knew it was going to be a difficult test as Petherton had defeated Tor comfortable in the previous round.

The home side made 5 changes to the side that had played the previous day and included several of the successful colts’ side on the bench; however it was the visitors that made the better start.  Using their considerably larger pack to good effect the Petherton forwards battered the Wells try line with charge after charge, but to Wells’ credit they defended admirably and repelled all the attacks.  Eventually the city side forced a turn over and Aaron Cook’s trusty boot relieved pressure.

This gave the home side a lift with their forwards getting into the game more; debutant prop Lewis Birch making several forays into the oppositions defensive line.

Eventually from a lineout Wells’ opened the scoring when centre Alex Knight powered through from a short pass of Cook to run in 30 metres for the opening try.  Cook added the conversion and 5 minutes later slotted over a penalty to give the home side a 10 – 0 lead at the interval.

Resuming with the slope in their favour, Wells upped the pace of the game and began to launch some swift attacks.  Eventually the pressure toiled with the Wells backs helping themselves to a hatful of scores.  The most memorable tries were scored by centre Jonny Allen with a solo effort from his own twenty-two and flanker Steve Owen ran over half the length of pitch to score.

Other scorers were captain Ben Knight, Lewis O Meara and Chris Saunders.

The most pleasing aspect of the game were the debut of several of this year’s colts.  At the end of the match Tom Lewis, Lewis Cohen, Shane Costello, Chris Slade and Tim Gibbons were all playing and combined with Birch’s first half appearance meant that no fewer than 6 of the side made their competitive debut for the senior side.