Norwich in the North East London Division 2

Saturday 5th December 2015 home against Norwich in the North East London Division 2

Norwich travelled to Woodham having had a slight dip in form after spending the start of the season in the top 3. Woodham came into the game after a heavy defeat away at Sudbury. Norwich elected to play with the wind advantage and started with a slight dominance in the scrum. After 10 minutes Woodham sorted out the scrum and took one against the head (a big plus for John Murphy ) but they were relying on their defence to keep Norwich out. The pressure eventually told and Joe Dukelow was penalised for not releasing the ball but the kick at goal was missed. The Woodham backrow now came into the game and a big tackle from Peta led to the first of many Lewis Gilbert turnovers. Thirty five minutes into the half, a great run by Joe led to a Woodham penalty, which Jack Reeve put over to make the score 3-0. As half time approached Woodham gained another penalty, this time a kick for touch was taken. From the resulting over thrown lineout, Ryan Marshall took a clean catch and made a strong drive setting up a ruck in the Norwich 22. From the ruck , Joe sniped and put Neil Gittos into a gap, he returned the ball to Joe who just got caught short of the line but found James Wilson on his shoulder to score the first try. Jack converted to make the score 10-0.

Woodham, who had a poor second half in the last game, were determined not to repeat this and came out strongly with 2 powerful runs for Warren Duggan. ( described by Norwich in their report as Lomuesque ) The second run set up a scoring position and eventually Peta crashed over and Jack converted to make the score 17-0. Ten minutes into the half, a strong run from Woodham’s other winger James Price found him in the Norwich 22 and with James Wilson in support a try looked on the cards. However, some sterling defence lead to a Norwich penalty and they cleared their line. Norwich who always looked dangerous in open play, but with the problematic wind, found too many passes going either in front or behind their target stopping them from mounting pressure on the Woodham line. When Norwich were able to put phases together, Woodham’s defence was very aggressive and it included two big tackles from Adam Brown the Woodham 10, who added this to his superb attacking play and accurate line kicks. From a Norwich scrum which was now under pressure, Joe picked up the ball and fed Warren who burst over the line and Jack again converted 24-0. Woodham now had control of the contact area and repeatedly got over the gain line. This led to Jorden Harper finding himself with a 2 on 1 with the Norwich 15 and Joe on his outside. Much to Jorden’s fathers delight he ignored the pass, sold 2 dummies and crashed over the line for Woodham’s 4th try and another conversion from Jack made the score 31-0. Woodham in the past have let sides back in the game but they were determined to keep Norwich scoreless and play for the whole 80 minutes. As the game came to an end a Woodham backs move put Steve Kerslake into the open. Steve managed to side step into his opposite number but took him over the line and scored the fifth try which Jack converted giving him a 100% kicking record and the final score of 38-0. Woodham used all their subs and 17 year old Andy Sutton and James Robinson made telling contributions when they came on to make their debuts. Andy Fry was used to rotate the front row and the scrum continued to dominate.

Coach Tony Woods and Skipper Ryan Marshall were very pleased with the balanced performance with every player from 1 to 18 making a contribution. The man of the match was very difficult and Adam was named in the club by the skipper and the reporter will give it to Joe for his consistency in recent games. Sammy Sharpe had a good game and made numerous spinning drives to get over the gain line. Tackle of the match goes to the Norwich double team on Peta who will not be jumping any more tackles this season. The hospital pass of the match goes to David Bull who definitely made Lewis change direction.
The match had a great programme, so well done to Jack Kershaw for all his work. Reporter Barry.