Swaffham 5 - 46 Newmarket

Newmarket continued their recent good form with a fifteen man performance that overwhelmed the Swaffham defence and made it difficult for the opposition attack to cross the gain line. With forwards and backs firing on all cylinders it was no surprise when Newmarket scored early, as Dan Bristow and Chris Le combined to get within inches of the try line and set up Ethan Brown to wriggle over.

They had soon doubled the score as Aiden Cooper spotted a gap on the blindside and slipped the ball to Iain Moffat. The winger had work to do before touching down in the corner, following his welcome return to the team. With both conversions missed, Le was then close to another score, only to be adjudged rightly to have made a double movement in trying to get the ball over the line.

Moffat moved from wing to outside centre shortly afterwards as Nathan Buckle had to be carried off with a serious-looking ankle injury. Newmarket responded well and Swaffham found themselves pinned in the own twenty-two and having to kick to clear their lines. With Newmarket winning any lineout ball and Ashley Reid comfortably catching and returning any open field kicks it was inevitable that the waves of pressure would tell and this time it was Cooper who cut back in past the wrong-footed defence to score under the posts. Joe Stafford converted the try and soon added to his points tally with a try of his own on the stroke of half time  to give Newmarket a 24 point lead.

The pattern of the game continued in the second half as Stafford made good use of kicks over the top of the Swaffham defence to put them under pressure. First a good chase by Joe Metts and Moffat enabled the ball to be recovered with Stafford finishing off what he had started. Then Gwilym Davies put the defence under pressure allowing Metts to charge down the clearance kick and Jack Felton benefited from the rebound for his first try for the club and the man of the match award.

In between these Newmarket scores, Swaffham managed to break out of their own half briefly and a powerful run led to an unconverted try in the corner. The score gave the home side more heart and they defended stoutly for the remainder of the game against a Newmarket side that was reduced to 14 by a sending off. However, their efforts were in vain as Stafford scored a hat-trick try for the second week running following a powerful run by Cooper.

The front row of Tom Wills, Dan Downing and Oliver Sanusi Bartlett, together with flanker Ben Jeacock had been at the heart of much of Newmarket's success in retaining ball and they were responsible for starting the move that resulted in Newmarket's final try. This time Stafford turned provider to put Cooper in close to the posts. Sanusi Bartlett's narrow conversion miss ended the game.

Sunday 28th March: Away v Swaffham

It's an 11am kick off, so please be at Swaffham for 10am.

Directions to ground here

Newmarket 57 - 0 Ipswich

With the benefit of some pre-match tips from Dave Sayer, Newmarket's 1st team coach, the U14s proved unstoppable against an Ipswich side that was short of competitive playing time in a disrupted season. The home side dominated in every phase of the game and ran in nine unanswered tries.

The writing was on the wall for the visitors from the first kick off when Ethan Brown and Gwilym Davies combined well to recover the ball. From the subsequent lineout Chris Le gathered loose ball and shrugged off the tacklers to run in from 20 metres out. Joe Stafford converted the first of his five successful conversions.

With Ipswich's scrum proving solid, the visitors tried to run the ball through their backs at every opportunity, but Newmarket were quickly up in defence to shut them down and force the errors. When they kicked for touch, Newmarket dominated the lineouts and it was stolen ball from a throw in that allowed first Dan Downing and then Lewis Heap to carry play almost to the try line, from where Dan Bristow was unstoppable.

The third try came almost immediately. From the drop out Newmarket smuggled the ball back to Heap. The scrum half found his fly half and Stafford raced three-quarters the length of the pitch to outpace the Ipswich defence and touch down in the corner. With Heap in confident mood he was unlucky that his cross-field kick was not gathered by Ashley Reed, Newmarket's pacy full-back.  A  couple of plays later a solid ruck provided the platform for Brown to test the blind-side and prop Tom Wills benefited from the well-timed pass that allowed him to score his first Newmarket try.

Ipswich put up some resolute defence at the start of the second half and did well to bring down Le and Bristow, Newmarket's rampaging forwards. However, they struggled to clear their lines completely as first Ben Jeacock got close and then Le was held up over the line. From the subsequent scrum the half backs again combined to give Stafford his second try.

By now the whole Newmarket team was playing with confidence and neat passing between Nathan Buckle, Davies and Brown resulted in the ball finding its way to Jack Felton for the first of several curving runs, from which he was unlucky not to score but which won him the man of the match award. Again Newmarket found themselves in front of the Ipswich posts and when a scrum became a penalty, Heap took a quick tap and this time wriggled over to score himself.

With both backs and forwards keeping the ball alive and breaking tackles the home side were soon back near the Ipswich line. The pressure told and a stray Ipswich pass behind the posts was seized on by the alert Jeacock who beat the defence to the ball and touched down.

It took just four touches of the ball for Newmarket to cover the length of the pitch and score their eighth try. Jack Watson collected the drop out, passed the ball to Reed who crossed the half way line before slipping it to Stafford who ran in under the posts and then generously allowed Watson to finish the move he had started.

Despite the scoreline Ipswich deserved a great deal of credit for the way in which they continued to stick to their task and, briefly, they managed to get into Newmarket territory and probe for a way through the home defence. But despite nice passing through the hands, the move again broke down allowing Buckle to kick safely to touch. Newmarket retrieved the ball from the lineout and another Felton run paved the way for Stafford to cap a tremendous performance as he mesmerised the Ipswich defence to score his hat trick. The match ended with Reed slotting the extra points.

Cambridgeshire U14s 26 - 10 Bedfordshire U14s

Joe Stafford was again part of the Cambridgeshire team for this mid-week match.

With the selection of 11 players for eastern counties training and potential selection, this game was a test of strength in depth in Cambridgeshire rugby.

The squad was disrupted with a growing injury list and could only muster a squad of 18 for the game.

Things looked ominous as the large Bedford pack trundled out past their lilliputian opponents.Tthe match started badly as the ko was mis-fielded and Cambs immediately handed the initiative to the Bedford pack who after a series of drives deservedly took the lead.

Strangely Cambs looked galvanised by the chastening experience of trailing a team for the first ever time. With a positive raising of their heads Cambs started to play the free flowing game that suits their personnel and scored a try through Sean Cooper and expertly converted by Rory Hutchinson just before half time.

Cambs turned to play the second half down the gentle Davy Field slope, and scored amost immediately with Sam Collicott starting and finishing off a flowing 50 metre  move.

Cambs now had the measure of Beds tactics, and with the back row effective at tackle and turnover, continually robbed Bedford ball to counter attack quickly. From such a scenario Rory Hutchinson was able to dummy and dart over the line and convert his own try.

Beds were not yet done and from a rare foray into Cambs territory they muscled their way over for their second forwards try.

Cambs response was instant and classic Cambs. Moving the ball from one side of the pitch then to the other, and from quick ruck ball Ollie Walker sold an outrageous dummy to score the try his man of the match performance deserved. Once again the conversion was expertly converted by the impressive Hutchinson.

Full marks to Cambs for this top rated performance in challenging circumstances.

Newmarket 12 – 7 Bury St Edmunds

Following a drawn game earlier in the season, another close and competitive match saw Newmarket take the honours this time by two tries to one.

Kicking off up the hill, Newmarket made a strong start and threatened the Bury line twice in the first few minutes. First Jack Watson and then Ben Jeacock took the ball over the whitewash only to be either held up or forced to knock forward by determined Bury defence. On both occasions the  opportunities had been set up by the secure catching under the high ball of Ashley Reed at full-back. His counter-attacking was well-supported by the other backs and Nathan Buckle, in particular, proved difficult to stop.

With their scrum proving solid, the Newmarket forwards also went close to scoring and only some brave tackling by Bury's winger prevented first Dan Bristow and then Chris Le from getting to the try line. However, for all their territorial advantage, it was Newmarket who conceded the first points. Bury broke the Newmarket back line to take play into the home side's half and although they were stopped on the first occasion, several phases of play saw them break the line again to score near the posts and take a 7 point lead.

With the last play of the first half Newmarket reduced the arrears as Buckle took a quick tap penalty to cross for an unconverted try.

With the benefit of the slope Newmarket would have expected to have turned the screw on Bury in the second half, but inexplicably their scrum began to mis-fire. With Bury regularly gaining possession the home team had to defend hard with Gwilym Davies, Jack Felton, Toby Colletta and Watson making crucial tackles. However, in loose play the Newmarket forwards were difficult to stop with the front row of Ollie Sanusi-Bartlett, Dan Downing and Tom Wills controlling the driving mauls and forcing errors from the opposition. Following one such infringement Newmarket did get rare clean ball from the scrum allowing Le to pick up at No. 8 and brush off the defence to score. Buckle slotted the difficult conversion.

A few minutes later Newmarket should have extended the lead as Bristow was again held up under the posts, though at the cost of Bury conceding a penalty. Ethan Brown looked to have scored from the quick tap only for the referee to judge that a Bury hand had got underneath the ball.

Newmarket then went into their shell. Bury pressed them back into their own 22 and the home side opted to try and pick and drive away from their line when clearing kicks down the slope seemed a better option. The tactics did nearly pay dividends when Watson broke through the Bury lines and was only brought down 10 metres or so from the try line but lack of discipline then allowed the visitors to travel back the length of the pitch as Newmarket gave away penalty after penalty. It was a relief for the home side when the final whistle sounded with Bury pressing hard for a further score.

Norfolk 5 Cambridgeshire 43

Congratulations to Joe Stafford on scoring for Cambridgeshire on Sunday.

Cambs try scorers: Ryan Headington (2), George Smith, Louis Rawlings (2), Joe Stafford, Alex Shea-Simmonds

Conversions: Ryan Headington (4)

This was a comfortable victory for Cambridgeshire over a Norfolk team who never really got out of the starting blocks. Cambs were too dynamic in the loose and had too much pace in the backs for their Eastern Counties rivals. Only a tendency for over elaboration in midfield kept the score respectable - if Cambs had got the ball into the hands of their wingers more often the score must surely have been greater.

It took 5 minutes for Cambs to get on the scoreboard - a flowing passing move put winger George Smith over in the corner. Cambs completely dominated the first half. The scrum was very solid and the front row of Pratt, Picton-Turbervill and Curtis demonstrated that superior technique will always win the day over size in the set-piece.

Resolute defence by Norfolk kept the scoreline down even though Norfolk had not yet ventured into the Cambs half. In particular a crunching tackle by the Norfolk blindside flanker on Cambs scrum half Harry Hitchcock when a big blindside beckoned saved a certain try. Eventually the pressure told - second row Sam Jones won a line out, the ball was recycled and from the ensuing ruck the try was scored by fly half Louis Rawlings coming round on the loop.

From the restart Norfolk were unable to clear their lines - the ball bobbled loose and it was snaffled up by the Cambs back row. The mobile unit of Ollie Walker, Ben Bishop and Euan Dingwall gave Norfolk no respite. The ball was passed out to centre Joe Stafford who dived over the line. Ryan Headington's conversion made the score at half time 17-0 to Cambs.

At the start of the second half Norfolk were once again unable to deal with the restart and Cambridgeshire turned the ball over. Slick passing from the half backs put inside centre Ryan Headington in for a score. Headington followed his try with a successful two point kick.

Norfolk now started to come back into the game more - their pack got on top at the set piece and they engineered an overlap for their pacy left winger to skate in for a deserved try.

Having scored their try the Norfolk defensive organisation started to unravel and Cambridgeshire scored three further tries. A neat midfield tiger ball put Sam Jones through a gap. He offloaded to fly half Rawlings who dived over for his second try.

Cambridgeshire then scored direct from the kickoff as a wonderful flowing passing movement gave Ryan Headington his second try. Finally another passing move created space out wide for winger Alex Shea-Simmonds. Two further conversions from Headington made the final score 43-5 to Cambridgeshire.

Sudbury 14 – 12 Newmarket

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game to watch, played in a good spirit by both sides on Sudbury's impressive new ground.

In fact both sides struggled to find their best form. Sudbury attacked strongly through their backs but fumbled their passes far too often. Newmarket drove strongly in the forwards but lost too much ball in contact.

For much of the first half there was little between the teams and there seemed no danger when Toby Colletta, playing at flanker, picked the ball from the back of the scrum and ran sideways towards the touchline. However, he proved too pacy for the home side and curved outside the Sudbury defence. A despairing tap tackle proved too little to stop him touching down under the posts for his first try for Newmarket. Joe Stafford converted on the stroke of half time.

Sudbury began to dominate in the second half. They kicked away quite a lot of possession but eventually it was a cross-field kick that enabled them to even the score as Newmarket failed to defend against their speedy backs.

However, Newmarket fought their way back and were awarded a penalty in front of the posts. Unfortunately, they turned down the opportunity for 3 points in exchange for an unsuccessful attempt to score from the tap penalty. As it turned out those three points made all the difference to the final result.

Sudbury took the lead with five minutes left with their second converted try. However, there was just time for Dan Bristow to crash over in the corner. Joe Stafford found himself with another conversion kick to end the match and level the score. But this time the acute angle proved too  difficult and Sudbury ran out winners by 2 points.

Joe Metts, for his tackling, and Toby Colletta were declared men of the match.