Sat 29 Oct 2022
Wisbech 35-17 Norwich Union 29-Oct-2022
Norwich Union travelled to Wisbech RFC with a bare 15 players, as injury and unavailability took its toll to take on the league leaders.
Union however shocked their hosts with a heroic performance, starving them of the ball in the first quarter and camping in their 22m, with some muscular play and whilst the Wisbech defence stood strong, it inevitably relented as Union battered down the door through a classic Union catch and drive started and finished by Ben Bond-Webster as the juggernaut drover over the line in the corner, Lloyd Davis narrowly missing the conversion to take 0-5 lead on the 20min mark.
It was however the 32nd minute before Wisbech crossed the line, the hosts eventually finding their way to the line after some sustained pressure that allowed them to find space out wide on the left flank as the Union defences became depleted scoring a converted try to take a 7-5 lead.
An injury to Joe Morrell as he made a tackle close to the line and a yellow card for Alex Sinclair for a deliberate knock-on reduced Union to 13 men as half time approached, the two men advantage resulted in two further converted tries in the 39th and 40th minute, so Union went in 21-5 down.
With a chance to re-group at half-time Union came out of the stocks firing, a catch and drive on the 22m, was at first repelled, but a second shove splintered the defenders asunder allowing Simon Pitcher the space to power over the line just to the left of the uprights, Davis added the extras to take the score to 21-12 on the 45min mark.
Wisbech cancelled this out within 5 minutes as they stole a lineout on the Union 22m and deployed their own driving maul from which they scored their bonus point try to stetch the lead to 28-12.
They then extended this lead on the 65min mark a scrum in midfield allowing them to spin quickly to the left wing allowing their winger the space to score in the corner, the Wisbech 10 slotting the conversion to take the score to 35-12.
Despite many of the Union players being out on their feet they dig deep and ended the game as they started with a try from a 5m scrum, Craig Dunbar picking from the base and powering over scoring an unconverted try wide out on the right with 5mins to go.
Union were unable to secure much possession in the closing period to push for a bonus point, instead they spent spent much of it defending, which they did with aplomb keeping the hosts out despite dropping to 13 with an injury to inside centre Matt Cook.
Union ended the game with their heads held high after a magnificent performance but were left wondering what might have been if there had been a full bench of replacements also able to make the journey.
Union’s next game before a well-deserved two-week layoff is next week at home against Newmarket, with the clocks going back kick off is at 2.30pm.
Team: Chris Spenceley, Ben Bond Webster, Jordan Read, Tom Easton, Joe Morrell, Matt Spenceley (c), Craig Dunbar, Lloyd Davis, Jomba Duma, Matt Cook, Ryan Day, Alex Sinclair, Matt O’Brien
Scorers: Ben Bond-Webster 1T, Simon Pitcher 1T, Craig Dunbar 1T, Lloyd Davis 1C from 3 attempts.
Whalebone man-of-the-match: Jomba Duma
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