Early alarm bells wake Southwold up for spirited display

The first game of 2020 was hotly anticipated for Southwold U16’s and there are rarely more difficult tests in Norfolk than North Walsham. North Walsham had the advantage of having a run out the week before against Norwich and apart from a couple of players on Eastern Counties duty fielded a full strength squad against us. It was two months since Southwold had played, with a minimum amount of training sessions between games where everyone had been available. With a group of four U15’s supplementing numbers, Southwold arrived with a squad of 18 players. The question before the start amongst the Southwold spectators was around whether the lads were still in their cars on the way up the North Walsham road at kick off or aware that they had started the game. It transpired that it was the former, and within the first ten minutes North Walsham had run in three tries with slick handling and the pace on their wings catching Southwold napping. The score stood at 19 – 0. At this point, it seems that a number of alarms probably started to go off in the lad's heads, as suddenly the rucking, line speed and tackling all improved dramatically. With several phases of play and some excellent rucking putting North Walsham under pressure, the ball came quickly to Bruno who saw a gap in the line and broke through passing three players before planting the ball over the try line just to the right of the posts. It was at this point that North Walsham realised that Southwold hadn’t just come for them to roll over for another win for Walsham, but that they were in a game. Southwold increased the pressure on the opposition driving them back to their try line, but couldn’t quite make it count. North Walsham, so dangerous on the counter, did so again and scored; which brought a sense of audible relief to the home supporters. That continued to be the pattern in the first half which didn’t reflect the dynamic of the match. 33-7 at half time.

The second half was a similar affair to the end of the first half. Walsham had a number of subs to call on and changes were rung at half time with probably a good nine pairs of fresh legs. North Walsham are nothing if not clinical in their approach, and whilst Southwold had sustained periods of time where they put Walsham under significant pressure (resulting in a number of penalties) they could not quite make them count, and Walsham once again started to put more tries on the score board. One notable element of Southwold’s game this season has been their never say die attitude to games. Whilst North Walsham put a further 22 points on the score board, the balance was far more even in the second half, with Will F going over to the left of the posts, Bruno going over for his second in the right hand corner and Nick sniping through a gap in the defence after some great rucking from a line out. 55-24 at full time. It is fair to say, not many teams go to North Walsham and score four tries against a team that have been playing together for a number of seasons and were close to full strength. It is also testament to all the lads that the Walsham spectators felt, with the exception of the first ten minutes, the match was a very even affair. Once again it is great to see the U15’s coming into the squad and going toe to toe with everyone and having such a big effect on the game, so big nod to Dom, Jack, Nog and Will C for having such an impact on the game. A further nod to Will Wilcox for his play despite the leg injury. Southwold have plenty of positives to take away from their first game of 2020 and into the plate game next week – the lads should be rightly pleased with how they finished the match. As our very own wise man says – the toughest climbs lead to the best views. ATW.