Norwich Union RFC

For the first time since the 1970s Norwich Union fielded a 3rd XV, 17 players pulling a Union shirt on, some of them for the first time in a few years to take on a Lakenham side supplemented by a few L&Y players as a number of their players were away in Las Vegas.

Nomad’s Captain Richard Ross ran a warm up reminiscent of pre-game preparation from the 1990s, where much creaking of old bones could be heard, he then gave a rousing speech before battle commenced.

It was clear from the outset that Lakenham’s youthful players would try to ship the the ball at every opportunity, however the experienced Nomads pack worked well together to minimise quick ball, with Pete Gilding rolling back the years, throwing himself into tackles with abandon and sniffing out many an attack. Doug Evans was also a menace in tight play, taking the ball on in attack and tying up the ball in defence to frustrate the opposition.

As anticipated once Lakenham got clean ball they used their lithe backs to run around the Nomads defence and were soon up by a try.
The Nomads responded, a series of rucks resulting in the ball being shipped to the token under 25 in the Nomads team James Grey who barged his way over the line to score. Nick Gibbons was next to score, a delayed pass from the mercurial Chris De Main playing at 10 allowed Gibbons to ghost through to score under the posts, De Main adding the extras to take the Nomads into a 7-12 lead.
Lakenham then responded with their hooker bouncing off tackles before sprinting to the line scoring under the posts allowing for an easy conversion to retake the lead at 14-12.

The Nomads responded almost immediately this rime through Doug Evans who received the ball from scrum half Russ Clarke who took a quick tap 5m out, Evens then powered over the line to score, De Main added the extras to retake the lead at 14-19 as the half time whistle blew.
Unbowe
d Lakenham started the second half with determination, utilising their back more and indeed scored a could of quick tries to stretch retake and extend their lead at 28-19. However, Nomads Man of the Match Matt Lefevre bagged two tries, the first a full 50m solo effort and the second a pick the base of a 5m scrum as he slotted in at number 8 the score swapping hands again at 28-29.

Lakenham responded as the Nomads legs tired again retaking the lead firstly scoring through the centres, then from a quickly taken lineout as the Nomads cleared their lines, the latter being converted to take a 40-29 lead.

The Nomads were however not done and scored a try through Kim Crossley, who picked from the base of a 5m scrum and drove over the line to narrow the deficit to 40-34, they scored shortly after with Adam Fox showing an uncharacteristic turn of speed to skip through a gap in the Lakenham defences to score and reduce the Lakenham lead to 1 point. De Main was unable to add the conversion in the blustery conditions, so despite the Nomads outscoring their opposition seven tries to 6, went down 40-39.

In his after-match speech Captain Richard Ross said that despite the narrow loss it was great to see a Norwich Union 3rd XV playing for the first time this century and to see so many smiles on the faces of the team after the game.
Watch out for more games for the Nomads next season!

Team: Ed Lansell, Adam Fox, James Grey, Richard Ross, Doug Evans, Matt Lefevre, Pete Gilding, Kim Crossley, Russ Clarke, Chris De Main, Billy Blackburn, Nick Gibbons, Peter Sparks, Chris Hilderbrand, Dale Blackburn, Richard Rodda, Bob Blair

Scorers: Matt Lefevre 2T, Nick Gibbons 1T, Doug Evans 1T, Adam Fox 1T, James Grey 1T, Kim Crossley 1T, Chris De Main 2C from 7 Attempts

Man of the match Matt Lefevre