London north east Div 3 SWF 22 Norwich 16

Norwich arrived at Saltcoats and refused to play on a sodden pitch and it was only through the efforts of scrum half Philip Lockwood that an alternative pitch was found in the William de Ferrers school. Thanks to him and the school for accommodating us and enabling us to kick off at 2pm as scheduled. A large crowd assembled and the game started with both sides testing the others defences. There was spurned opportunities on both sides until Norwich crossed the try line in the tenth minute to Scott a fine try under the posts and the conversion made it 7-0 Norwich.

There followed an extended period of SWF pressure which lead to our first try in the 13th minute when the impressive Digga picked up the ball in space on the wing he bore down on the Norwich winger and stepped around him only to be caught about 7 metres from the try line but he offloaded to the prop and captain Gittos who was hauled down just short but offloaded to flanker Searles to score. SWF were rampant at this point and as the ball went across the field to the right and then back to the left Lockwood got the ball out to free scoring lock Wilson for his try in the 16th minute. The in the 25 th minute full back levy came into the line to score in the corner to leave the score SWF 15 Norwich 7 and this was the score at half time.

Norwich came out with real intensity in the econd half and put SWF under fierce pressure but the defence for SWF was superb with Apthorp and Harper hitting targets again and again. Nor scored a penalty kick in the 52nd minute when Bull was sin binned after one offence too many at the ruck. Norwich pounded the SWF defenders during this period to try and take advantage of their superior numbers, but the defence stood firm conceding only one more kick to leave the scores at SWF 15 Norwich 13 as we moved into the last quarter of the match.

With Bull restored the forwards drove a series of mauls towards the Norwich 22 which resulted in a penalty to SWF which harper put deep into the Norwich 22. From the line out the forwards rumbled forward and it was neat peel off from Wilson which led to his second try which was converted by Harper to leave us ahead 22-13 in the 65th minute. Both sides had further opportunities to score with Norwich converting a penalty to secure their losing bonus point but the whistle went and SWF took the full 5 points in offer with a 22-16 win. A great game by both sides and a great result for SWF. A big thank you to the large number of supporters who got behind the team, and a Bon voyage to the ever popular Lewis Gilbert who is off to NZ for a year to play rugby, good luck from everyone at the club.