Hosts put pressure on fourth place with three games to go in season

Thetford 57 West Norfolk 19

In a frustrating fixture for West Norfolk, Thetford took their chances and put the pressure on fourth place with three games to go in the season.

West had a number of unavailabilities, especially in the back line, meaning starts for Jamie Williamson and Edney Costa at centre with Jamie-Lee Flores and Connor Clarke stepping in on the wings.

Thetford started with the initial possession but some ferocious tackles from the likes of Henry Rust and Kell Lewis stopped Thetford in their tracks. However the pressure began to tell with West giving away a number of penalties resulting in three points for Thetford.

Some good build up play by West in reply allowed Connor Clarke to break down the wing. After offloads from prop Luke Covell and no.8 Sam Mount, West tried to go wide but a loose ball was pounced on by the Thetford wing who scored a converted breakaway try.

From the kick off, West again applied defensive pressure and after a fumble by Thetford some quick distribution by fly half Sam Moses put winger Flores in space out wide to cross over the try line, converted by Moses.

In similar circumstances, Thetford kicked off and after a fumble by West and a quick tap penalty, Thetford exploited space out wide to score another converted try.

West’s dominance in the forwards began to tell with Thetford conceding a number of penalties at scrum time and using this as a base, West tried to go wide but quick thinking and an interception by their full back got Thetford another try.

Again West’s scrum asserted its dominance with two penalties on the Thetford 5m line. Jamie Williamson took things into his own hands by picking and driving from short range to crash over the Thetford line, converted by Moses (H-T 22-14).

Unfortunately West could not maintain their competitive edge in the second half with Thetford using their speedy backs to take advantage of a depleted back line. Thetford scored four unanswered tries in succession before West rallied and after some good build up play, in similar fashion Williamson picked and went from the back of the scrum to charge over from short range.

Thetford scored one more try through their backs before full time despite West’s attempts to break through using the forwards and their offload game.

Adrian Flux Man of the match was Jamie Williamson.

First team manager Damien Fish commented: “It’s a disappointing day for the team after such a big loss especially as we have been unbeaten in 2018 in the league.

“But it’s how we react to this loss that matters, especially with the Norfolk Intermediate Cup semi-final next weekend and we know how well we can play, as we have shown in the last few months.

“We fully believe that we can put this weekend behind us and get back to winning ways next week.”