South Woodham Ferrers FRC suffered the consequences of taking a weakened side to runaway league leaders Norwich this weekend going down 64 points to 7. The home side were dominant throughout scoring freely, clocking up 5 tries in each half.

This was always going to be a hard game for Woodham but without key players lost to injury, bans and personal commitments it was made far harder for the side cobbled together at the last minute. With only one substitute any injury was going to be hard to cover and with Sammy Sharp coming off with a head injury early in the game all the cards were on the table.

Norwich dominated the first half running in five tries to the visitors one, a penalty try awarded when James Price hacked the ball out of defence and dribbled it into the Norwich 22 only to be brought own illegally before scoring what would have been a great individual try. Woodham could have scored earlier try when fly half Terry Stiffell intercepted a pass and raced towards the opposition line, sadly he didn’t have enough gas or the necessary support to convert.

The second half saw Woodham enjoy more possession, but strong defending kept them at bay. The home side had the power and organisation to capitalise on their chances and they ran in a further five unanswered tries.
Whilst the score does not reflect it the lads never stopped trying. They were able to force the home side into infringements in the red zone that resulted in several yellow cards and the penalty try. They simply didn’t have the normal fire power up front and the backs were working off scraps.

The game was further marred by the injuries to Sammy Sharp and to skipper Lewis Gilbert who came off late in the second half with a suspected broken hand. We wish them both well and hope for a speedy recovery.