Great Yarmouth - Broadland 1st XV v North Walsham 2nd XV

Great Yarmouth - Broadland 1st Xv 22
North Walsham 2nd Xv 24
On a bitterly cold afternoon two mid table sides played a thoroughly entertaining game of rugby that went down to the very final seconds. North Walsham started the game brightly using their wind advantage to pin Broadland back in their half. Despite their territorial advantage Walsham could not get on the board thanks to some fantastic Broadland defence. The forwards were putting in lots of physical hits with the front row pair of Lee Raven and Rian Gallie making sure nobody snuck round the edges of a ruck. James Murphy was up quick on the wing and snuffed out several breaks with strong tackles. After a string of penalties Broadland found themselves down a man for ten minutes and this allowed Walsham to score the first try of the game. Broadland responded though and despite being a man short they looked the team with an advantage. Stuart Murray put them on the board with a penalty before they scored on the half. Richard Ruddick picked up a loose ball and broke down the wing before being stopped metres short. Walsham infringed and Matt Beckett took a quick penalty which he fed to Nathan Bensley who crashed over from close range.
The second half saw Dudley replace Ruddick on the flank and make his presence felt quickly with a string of solid tackles preventing any line breaks. Walsham pressed hard though and were awarded a penalty try for not retreating. Again Broadland responded well to the score. Jamie Murray came onto the field and made an immediate impact with several crunching hits. Kieran Wilkes and Tristan Barber made several hard carries to tie defenders in and give Simon Ruddick quick ball to use. Eventually Shaun Howley went charging through the middle of the field and took almost half the defence with him before the ball was worked wide to Ben Collings who scored in the corner (converted.) Then almost immediately Broadland scored again with George Wilson breaking from the scrum and offloading to Liam Haylett who brushed off several defenders and scored under the posts (converted.) At this point it looked like Broadland would have the game in the bag but Walsham didn’t stop playing and with five minutes left they scored from a speculative chip that bounced away from Ant Payne and into Walsham hands to give them a score in the corner. Still Broadland looked good for the win but as time was running out Walsham stole a scrum and thanks to a string of penalties camped on the Broadland five metre line. As the time ran out Walsham were awarded a try despite the ball seemingly never getting to the line. The kicker held his nerve to convert and give the away side a hard fought victory.
Squad: M. Beckett, L. Raven, R. Gallie, K. Wilkes, N. Bensley, L. Haylett, R. Ruddick, G. Wilson, S. Ruddick, S. Murray, S. Howley, B. Collings, J. Murphy, T. Barber, A. Payne Subs: J. Murray, J. Dudley, B. Trett
Scorers: N. Bensley, B. Collings, L. Haylett Cons: S. Murray 2/3 Pens: S. Murray 1/1