London North East div 3 Wisbech 3 SWF 8

Saturday the 5th of January saw the rugby season recommence after the Christmas break and with SWF topping the table every game from here on in is a massive one. The journey to Wisbech takes the guts of 3 hours and is not the ideal preparation for any game, also Wisbech were keen to recover their form. It was a surprising mild and sunny afternoon as the teams kicked off and both sides tested each other early on but no real opportunities presented themselves.

SWF started to dominate after 15 minutes but spurned numerous opportunities with several close in line outs coming to nothing, and with the referee penalising the Wisbech defence quite often the opportunity to score 3 points was passed up in an effort to secure the 7 points instead. It seemed this would come when thewisbech number 8 was sin binned with 10 minutes to go to half time but again no points materialised. SWF were then reduced 10 13 men quickly when Wilson and then Marshall were sin binned close to half time. The score remained 0-0at half time.

The second half started and with the 2 man advantage Wisbech began a period of their own dominance but like SWF did not convert to points on their scoreboard. Their numbers 11 and 15 were looking particularly dangerous when given the ball in space, but the SWF defence was impressively resolute when it needed to be. Both sets of supporters were crying
out for at least a penalty score as it seemed this match was going to be very close and it was Wisbech who broke the deadlock in the 65th minute who converted a penalty to lead 3-0.

It looked like being a bad start to the year but the SWF team had finally woken up and from a Wisbech lineout SWF stole the ball and it was transported through the back line to Digga on the wing who beat the last defender and went in at the corner to give us the lead, brown just missing the conversion. Both teams went for the killer score and it was SWF who got it when they were awarded a penalty on the 22 which Brown converted to leave SWF ahead 8-3 with4 minutes to go. Wisbech tried vainly to get through the SWF defence but I was not to be and the boys took the win. A gritty if unspectacular win and it won't be the last time this season these boys will have to dig deep and produce a result.
SQUAD - Gittos, Langley, Gilbert, Tighe, Wilson, Marshall, Bull, Searles, Lockwood, Brown, Apthorp, Harper, Duggan, Jenkins, Levey, Morgan, Sharp, Price.
Next Saturday sees a vital top of the table clash at Saltcoats against Norwich 2ish kickoff all support welcome and appreciated