West Norfolk 12 - Harwich and Dovercourt 20

West Norfolk 12 - Harwich and Dovercourt 20

West Norfolk had the early possession but were met by a fierce Harwich defence who were clearly incensed from the defeat three weeks earlier. The home side struggled with the conditions early on and handling errors saw the Harwich defence untroubled.

15 minutes into the game West Norfolk started to lose their discipline and handed Harwich a penalty in front on the posts, Sam Male converted edging his side in front, 0-3.

From the restart Simon Palmer made a powerful break to set an attacking platform for the visitors and after some intelligent kicking Harwich were back in the West Norfolk twenty two.

The visitors soon crossed the line after great link up play from Josh Edwards and man of the match Robert Wood. Running off the centres Edwards offloaded out of the tackle to the supporting Wood who powered over the line from ten yards out. With Male hitting the upright with the conversion the score was now 0-8.

Harwich didn't ease off and the dominant visiting pack continued to force errors from their opponents.

After thirty minutes Nick Falevino scored Harwich's second , the winger showed his speed by out pacing his opposite number 30 yards out to score in the corner. 0-13 at half time.

Harwich started the second half as they finished the first with simple effective rugby.

H&D did waste several try scoring opportunities before Falevino crossed the line for his second try of the afternoon. Again the Harwich pack applied the pressure with several tight phases lead by Edwards and Sewell. The ball was then shipped out to Falevino to exploit the stretched West Norfolk defence and cross the line. Male converted. 0-22.

At this point Harwich looked as though they would go on to pick up the try scoring bonus point, but this was not to be as West Norfolk showed their character to finish the game the stronger of the two sides. The home side went on to score two well deserved trys, but the 20 point gap was too much for the home side to overcome and Harwich went on to pick up a well deserved victory.

Harwich also handed substitute Josh Leeks his first team debut, the 18 year old showed his potential with a solid performance in the H&D jersey.