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.