1st XV vs Norwich

South Woodhams second home game of the season ended in disappointment as they went down to London 2 North East league leaders Norwich 16 point to 27. The lads will be frustrated as they led right up into the 70th minute when ill -discipline and some slack defending handed the advantage back to the visitors in what had been a very tight game of good end-to-end rugby.

The opening exchanges offered little for the spectators with both defences snuffing out any attack that came their way. Woodham were unfortunate to lose captain Lewis Gilbert, fly half Terry Stiffell and in form prop Tate Holliday to injuries; leaving the bench empty with only a quarter of the match gone.

It was Woodham who opened the scoring with a well worked try finished by Warren Duggan. The conversion was missed. However, the home side were able to extend their lead after a promising attack resulted in a penalty scored by Jamie Cox. The half ended with Woodham on top with an 8 pointy advantage.

An extremely slow start from the home side saw Norwich score two converted tries before the lads woke from their slumbers to get back in the game. It was game on when Woodham broke out of their own half to score a fine running try from the backs, winger Alex Baker touching down.

Jamie Cox added an extra three when Woodham were awarded another penalty, with just 15 minutes of the game left the home side led 16 points to 14.

What followed was a period of implosion as the home side handed the game back to Norwich. First, they gave away a soft penalty which was compounded by some stupid back chat that brought the kick within range of the posts, Norwich took advantage and made it a two-point game.

The same error was repeated shortly after and Norwich were handed the lead as, again, poor discipline saw the ref march a penalty on 10 more yards to make the kick easy. It also saws Stevie Hurrell sin binned leaving a gap in the defence for the closing few moments of the game.

Norwich put the game out of reach of the home side with a try straight from the kick-off.

The positive to take away for the home team is that, despite losing key players early on, they more than held their own against an extremely physical and well drilled Norwich side that are flying high at the moment. On the down sided they let themselves down as poor discipline handed the game to the opposition undoing all of the hard work that had gone before.