Newmarket 39 - 0 Swaffham

Newmarket had a number of regular players missing from this convincing victory against an equally depleted Swaffham side. However, that didn't stop them producing an excellent all-round performance in which a number of more recent recruits took their opportunity to shine.

The home team were on the scoreboard almost immediately as good chasing from the kick off set up Anton Phillips to score in the corner. With Phillips and Gwilym Davies putting Swaffham under pressure as they followed up Nathan Buckle's positional kicking, it was not long before Newmarket set up another try opportunity.  Swaffham were forced to give away a penalty and Dan Bristow proved unstoppable from short range. For the second time Joe Stafford slotted the conversion from the touchline.

The away side found it difficult to get the ball out of their territory. When they did they found themselves on the receiving end of some strong running from the Newmarket backs. Lenny Gray reliably gathered the ball at full-back and returned it with interest. Jack Watson added solidity on his return from injury with a broken leg ,and his running and tackling was enough to earn him the man of the match award. However, it was Levi Jagropp, playing his first club match, who made the most obvious impact. Picking up the loose ball, the winger was held up over the line. From the subsequent set piece, scrum half Lewis Heap spotted the blindside opportunity and this time Jagropp could not be denied.

With the front row of Dan Downing, Phillips and Ollie Sanusi-Bartlett forming a rock solid platform at the scrums, in the second half the backs continued to break the line and both Iain Moffat and Jamie Griggs were unlucky not to convert long range runs. However, it was another run from Griggs and some excellent handling that allowed Stafford to score the fourth try.

The forwards didn't want to be left out and determined scrapping by Downing and Ben Jeacock allowed second row Matt Marsh to stretch out a long arm and score. Shortly afterwards it was Tom Chandler's chance to to pick up the loose ball from a Swaffham scrum and this time he was able to evade the chasing defenders and touch down after a 70 metre run.

In recent matches Newmarket had been let down by poor passing, but that appeared to be a thing of the past as the ball again went smoothly out to the wing and Jagropp outpaced the defence to cap a fine performance. Despite conceding the score Swaffham continued to show 100% effort and surprised Stafford by charging down his conversion attempt.

The final score didn't flatter Newmarket, but Swaffham were unlucky not to have put some points on the board themselves.

Thanks to Tim Davies for taking the photographs.