Beccles, dealing with their own injury crisis, without five or six of their starting team, travelled to Cambridge. The day started hard for the boys in green, they were down by a handful of tries in the opening ten minutes. Cantabs able to use the whole lengh of the pitch to spread it wide and take advantage of a constant one or two man overlap on the wings. The tries kept piling on for the home team, soon Cantabs had amassed thirty points then forty. Despite the flood gates being opened, Beccles were still able to keep making big hits and tackles in defence. Leigh Gedney, was a constant throughout the game, chopping the players low in tackle. During the last twenty minutes of the first half, the boys were able to sure up the defence and work even harder. Getting the ball back and holding on to it for periods, thanks to the leadership and hardship of captain Tris Holtzer and the offensive weapon that is Mike Shucksmith to keep the chains going. All this without even conceeding a point during that time.
The second half started and the Beccles boys were relentless in their efforts on defence, making tackle after tackle. The tries started to leak in again though, soon the scoreline was past seventy in favour of Cantabs. They were a very good team that clearly executed their game plan to perfection. At one point passing the ball through six sets of hands, whilst running at full pace to exploit a one man overlap on the wing. The bulls continued to fight though, Mike Suchy able to make a couple of linebreaks and Seb Morton able to rack up tackle after tackle. But against a far superior opposition it was always going to be an uphill battle.
The game finished 102 - 0. Where Beccles were properly outmatched but gave everything, and the scoreline doesn't do them justice. Despite this ridiculosly high scoreline, it was topped by 'Ely 111-3 Crusaders' the same weekend. These absurdly high scorelines show the pure gulf in class between some teams in London 3 Eastern Countines. With four or five teams vying for promotion, and four or five teams battling to stay up. Next week the first team play Wisbeach away.
Beccles' second team kicked off their league campagin against a local rival in Lowestoft and Yarnouth. The game was hard fought but L&Y came out victors in a 24-21 affair. Tries for the 2nd team came from Armstrong (2) and Knights.
If you would like to come down and try out rugby, come to beef meadow on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30pm.