After a hugely successful tour of Belgium, Yatton Colts were beaten 42-24 at North Petherton last Friday.

They faced big, powerful and well organised hosts, who played fast, aggressive rugby on a hard, quick pitch.

North Petherton looked to attack from the start and while Yatton's defence held it certainly didn’t have the team-wide dominant feel from previous matches.

On at least three separate occasions in the opening minutes Yatton found themselves turned over or penalised at the ruck, gifting their hosts the ball and territory.

A number of unforced handling errors meant it was only a matter of time before the hosts were going to score and they found the gap to go through on eight minutes.

Yatton hit back with terrific intent but all too often a combination of poor handling and lack of ball awareness let their rivals off the hook.

Finally, 15 minutes in, some quick ball from the breakdown found it’s way to full-back Ruben Willis who, playing his best game of the season, tore through the remaining defenders to score.

The next score by North Petherton followed some fiercely contested rugby by both sides but was followed shortly after by another from Willis.

A poorly managed restart gave the home side all the momentum they needed to get back up the pitch and score another and as the half drew to a close, they found time and space to go over again for a 28-12 lead at the interval.

With Yatton needing an early score in the second half, it was North Petherton who went over next as the visitors struggled to cope with their attack.

Yatton responded with some powerful pick-and-go rugby near the try line and a quickly taken penalty by second row Tyler Kay saw him crash through to score.

Another error at the restart allowed North Petherton to set up in the Yatton half and as tiredness from their tour kicked in and the injury count increased Yatton were unable keep the hosts out.

But another 10 minutes of hard, fast rugby followed with both teams attacking and defending in equal measure until the ball reached winger Fred Furmidge to sprint over for a great consolation try.