Close Game Sees SWF Just Fall Short

South Woodham Ferrers RFC v Norwich RFC

Another, failed, early morning pitch inspection at Saltcoates saw the fixture moved across the road to the local secondary school playing field. After the many changes to the squad that faced Rochford the previous week it was encouraging to see some of the 1st XV regulars coming back from injury/illness. With Norwich 18 points and several places above SWF in the London 2 North East League everyone knew that it was going to be a challenging afternoon.
The start of the game coincided with a short, sharp hailstone storm, which was blowing directly into the faces of the SWF side, and within two minutes a clearing kick was caught by a Norwich player (on the half-way line) only for him to run through several SWF players to touch down on the left-hand wing. With the Norwich kicker missing the conversion the score moved to 0 – 5. With the cessation of the hail stones SWF started to play their rugby and some sustained pressure on the Norwich try line followed culminating in Lewis Gilbert going over the line only to be judged, by the referee, to have been held-up. Norwich seemed to gain confidence from their spirited defence and began to build momentum of their own with a driving maul leading to their 2nd try. With the conversion kick spinning over off of one of the upright posts the score moved on to 0 – 12. Both sides were competing hard for the ball and one of these encounters led to a player from each side (Lewis Gilbert for SWF) being shown a yellow card. Woodham were showing their dominance in the scrum and some powerful play saw David Bull break free for the 1st SWF try of the match. With Jack Reeve missing the conversion the score became 5 – 12.
SWF were putting together some penetrating phases of play and it was from one of these that Warren Duggen made a good run on the wing and was unlucky not to score a try. Play was being mainly confined to the middle of the pitch although the Norwich backs were looking dangerous when they got the ball which they were looking to run at every opportunity. One of these opportunities saw Norwich cross the SWF try line only for the ball to be held-up. Half time came with the score remaining at 5 – 12.
The start of the 2nd half coincided with the two ‘binned’ players coming back onto the pitch and with both sides back to full strength the battle for dominance re-commenced. Early in the half Norwich gave away a, kickable, penalty for crossing inside their own half and with Jack Reeve getting the kick between the posts the score moved on to 8 – 12. SWF were now clearly in the ascendancy and soon won another penalty when a Norwich player was deemed to be off his feet at a breakdown close to the Norwich try line. The penalty kick was right in front of the posts and when it was successful (again by Jack Reeve) the scores closed to 11 – 12. With Norwich now showing a degree of ill discipline, partly, due to the pressure being asserted by SWF yet another penalty followed and the score moved to 14 – 12 with Woodham going ahead for the first time in the game. This seemed to be the spur that Norwich needed and from the kick-off they put SWF under pressure and ran-in their third try of the afternoon to take the score to 14 – 17. SWF made their first substitution (Greg Tighe off and John Murphy on) just before Norwich took their conversion kick to move the score on to 14 – 19. When the game restarted Norwich made an interception close to the half-way line and ran-in their 4th (and bonus point) try to make the score 14 – 24. While Norwich prepared to take their conversion kick SWF made their 2nd substitution (Jordan Harper off and Alex Baker on) and with the kick not being converted the score remained the same. With SWF now chasing the game it became even more vital to keep hold of the ball and with another Norwich player being shown a yellow card, for an infringement, Woodham made their 3rd and final substitution (James Wilson off and Greg Tighe on again). Further ill-discipline, at a breakdown, saw yet another Norwich player (a front row forward) receive a yellow card and the scrums had to go uncontested. With superiority in numbers it was now all out attack for SWF and with the clock ticking Warren Duggen scored the try that he had been threatening all afternoon. The conversion was missed so the score stood at 19 – 24. With only a few minutes to go it was all SWF with wave after wave of sustained attack. However despite their best efforts the ball refused to cross the try line and the game ended in yet another narrow defeat for the SWF 1st XV at 19 – 24.

The next scheduled game, on 28th February, sees SWF 1st XV travel away to Campion who are currently third in the league and pushing for a promotion slot.

South Woodham Squad – Neil Gittos (Captain), Sammy Sharp, David Langley, James Wilson, Greg Tighe, Sam Randlesome, Lewis Gilbert, David Bull, Joe Dukelow, Adam Brown, Jordan Harper, Curtis Apthorp, Leon Gatson, Warren Duggen, Jack Reeve. Substitutes: John Murphy, Alex Baker, Ryan Marshall.