Beccles came up against a good youthful Norwich Lions 2's team, that despite being in the bottom half of the league, played well above the standard of rugby that you would associate with that position.
Early dominance in the scrums, gave Beccles a good foothold for gaining clean possession, but it was a deadlock until 15 minutes into the game when Cameron Bonner managed to break out of a double tackle and go through for the score. This gave Beccles a 7-0 lead. Bonner continued to dominate, bouncing out of tackles left, right and centre.
Beccles added a penalty to the score line not long after to make it 10-0. Despite this, the game was looking fairly equal and Norwich soon added a try of their own; followed by another making it 10-10.
With the last couple of minutes of the first half escaping, Beccles were awarded a penalty, a quick tap and fast thinking by captain Gedney, led to Tom Harrison finding enough space on the wing to fend off any would-be tackler and touch it down in the corner to make it 15-0 going into half time.
Despite the hit and miss first half, the Beccles pack continued to steam-roll Norwich when it came to scrum time, pushing them as far back as 10 meters and winning back the ball multiple times. The pressure eventually took its toll as Tris Holtzer went over for a try after some good work in the forwards. Kauri soon added his second penalty of the day.
Norwich got one back in peculiar fashion, all but one player for Beccles completely stopped playing and watched as the opposition player ran 50 meters almost uncontested for the try. This gave Beccles the wake up call they needed. Going on to terrorise the Lions' defence with what was left of the second half. Keith Johnstone doing the gritty work up front, whilst Blair Hannam showed some fancy footwork.
Harrison managed to bag his second of the day in similar fashion, showing pace down the wing and strength when it came to finishing it off. Tris Holtzer also got his second of the day. Temm Kauri added another with a show and go that left him untouched as he went through for score.
Beccles came out victors after a close second half, 40-15. They have one more game left against Wymdon 2's before they proceed into the previously mentioned 'phase-two' part of the season. Here they will compete against teams from other respective leagues to see who gets promoted into London North 3.
Man of the match was shared by Johnstone and Bonner.
Kauri was 2/3 penalties & 2/6 conversions.
The second team were able to field a full strong squad but unfortunately Thetford 2s were not able to field a side so they didn’t get to take the field. This week the second team travel to Lakenham.