Southwold dazzle on the Common

Southwold U10's welcomed their Norwich counterparts to the Common on what was a day more fitting to beach shorts than rugby shorts!!

On this fine October morning, Southwold's skipper Dillon Burgess welcomed Norwich to the Common and he duly won the toss, electing to play with the Sea to his Wold players eyes.

The game was understandably tense as both sets of players initially worked each other out & cheaply gave possession away on both accounts, however it did not take more than a couple of minutes for Ellis Phillips to barge his way over for the first try of the day. This galvanised Southwold. The welcome return to the fray of tough guy Charlie Dean saw him combine with evergreen Will Dyson in the ruck to again release Ellis Phillips to bag his second. Phillips again using his size and strength to bully his way to the line with several Norwich players hanging onto him. Wolds ability to hang on, ruck, recover and recycle baffled Norwich and this was again the case, with possession recycled for three phases enabling flyers Jacob Bayford & Grainger Muir to combine for Wold's third unanswered try, touched down by Muir, looking somewhat meaner in his new armour kit. Norwich attempted to hit back from the restart, but Wolds tackling held firm and with Warren Terry and Dillon Burgess mauling and disrupting Norwich, they competed for everything. The final first half try came from Bayford, who can be relied upon with his first class approach to his rugby, this try was a real cracker, with James Rowland in the three quarters drawing two attackers before subtly offloading for Bayford to go over in the corner. An excellent try and one that shows young Rowland has much to offer.

Keeping everyone in the spirit of the Wold game, Louis Davey, whose tackling is fast becoming a major characteristic of the teams ability and Isobel Ross with her scampering runs, Wold began a new, invigorated second half with returning man mountain Archie Camp moving into the primary pod.

Norwich did score a couple of good try's in the early moments of the second half, following missed tackles & this buoyed Norwich. However, from the base of a hard won ruck, Ross took off down the blind side to release Dyson, who ran and committed three Norwich defenders, now if Billy Vuinipola can be equated to a man of Himalayan proportion, then Archie Camp must be of Pennine proportions. His marvellous clear out at a ruck enabled a fine try from Wold's Terry to be scored with Norwich now looking for an early exit North. It wasn't forthcoming and Wold repeated the move, this time Ellis Philips and Will Dyson cleared out a ruck sending Norwich bodies in all directions. Skipper Burgess linked with Charlie Dean to send Louis Davey over in the corner, only to have run out of room. They repeated this again, same move, same corner, same lack of room! Young Wold need to learn their line and pitch positions.

4 further tries were added as Wold players were rotated in an out of the active 8, but young Wold certainly smashed this encounter. The game ended with hand shakes and friendship & this was cemented in the club house with hot dogs after the game. We look forward to the return match in Norwich!!

Arn the Wold!!