West Norfolk 13 – 26 Southwold

Southwold continued their good start to the season with a hard fought win at West Norfolk, which, according to the supporters was actually the first time Southwold have ever won at North Wooton.

West Norfolk were quickly into their stride and played a very high tempo match for the first 20 minutes and put Southwold under intense pressure, however the strong defence held firm and Southwold gradually came into the game with some excellent work from the ever young Kevin Cayley, out of retirement, directing the game from 10 and some excellent box kicks from Sammy Harmor at 9 constantly turning the West Norfolk players.

After a sustained attack by Southwold, West Norfolk committed too many players to the breakdown and skipper James Hall was fed the ball out wide were an overlap had been created and scored the first of his two tries.  West Norfolk responded and centre Monty Maul caused problems every time he had the ball in space. West Norfolk slotted a penalty and it was obvious this was going to be a close match. However Southwold, following a turnover were awarded a penalty which Sammy Harmor slide between the posts and shortly after slotted his second. With half time approaching things looked comfortable for Southwold however West Norfolk broke from the half way line and whilst an excellent cover tackle on the line from James Barton stopped a certain try, West Norfolk recycled quickly and scored on the stroke of half time to make it 10 – 11 at the break.

The second half saw Southwold increase the intensity and after some great handling James Hall scored his second try to make it 10 – 16 and Southwold were well on top.  It looked like Southwold could then run away with it however indiscipline and a high penalty count allowed West Norfolk back into the game and although Sammy kicked a penalty for Southwold, West Norfolk kicked two and looked threatening at times. As full time approached, with the score at 13 – 19 the game could have gone either way however after pressure from Southwold, West Norfolk turned the ball over and chose to run out of their own 22 but a great tackle by debutant Matt Sutton caused the ball to be dislodged and James Barton swooped down and sped in to score under the posts which Sammy Harmor converted to give a final score of 13 – 26. Man of the match was Kevin Cayley.

The Southwold Jacks (2nd XV) also won on Saturday Southwold 71 – 14 Lowestoft & Yarmouth and are at the top of their league.

While on Sunday Southwold Colts beat Woodford 7-5 in the National Colts Cup.

U10s win a QF spot to play at Welford Road before Racing 92 game on 23rd October 2016

Beach training and moonlight swimming proved an ideal foundation for the u10s outstanding performance in the Prima Tiger Cup Festival at Diss. The next rounds will be played at Welford Road on 23rd October and the boys firmly deserve their progression in the tournament.

With Tigers trialing a new festival format for the RFU and the boys only three weeks into learning the basics of rucks and mauls it was a steep learning curve for all. The new format involved two pool stages, nine teams on three pitches unseeded for stage one then those pools providing the seeded second stage pools. The top seeded second stage pool providing a play off environment with points added and deducted for parent, coach and player behaviour.

In the stage one pool Southwold met Wymondham and Holt. Spectators were treated to some great rugby and Southwold saw fairly comfortable victories in both games without conceding any tries.

In the Second stage pool ‘wold met Sudbury and Newmarket. Sudbury won the first game v Newmarket by one try. Southwold also won v Newmarket by several tries so all hinged on the Southwold v Sudbury game. In this tournament points difference is irrelevant and drawn games are decided on the first team to score. We drew – Sudbury had scored first, so Southwold ended up second to Sudbury on the day.

Southwold u10s take away huge encouragement for the rest of the season and look forward to a trip to Leicester for the next round. A great day hosted magnificently by Diss and well run by Tigers community rugby team.

Well played fellas.

by Jonathan Woodruff

www.southwoldrugby.club

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