Newmarket narrowly clinched a tantalising win over Southwold in what was a very evenly matched contest between the two Suffolk sides.

Southwold made an impressive start with Sav taking on the Newmarket defence and showing his level of pace & determination, however, it was Newmarket who scored first carving up the Southwold defence with style & without any hesitation.

And Southwold soon found themselves on the back foot after Newmarket’s danger man, their number 8 powered over the line to put the home team in the lead 10-0. However, Southwold began to push forward and gained important ground & a free kick, tapped quickly by Freddie L led to the fly half running through to score Southwold’s first try. His conversion helped put them back in the game with the score at 10-7.

It became evident that this was going to be a game that saw every player demonstrate both skill and resilience. Neither side were giving up easily and the battle between them was intense & exciting.

Newmarket once again piled on the attack, with their forwards displaying very good hands passing the ball out wide. Southwold denied Newmarket reaching the try line for the 3rd time thanks to the excellent defensive work of Jesse, Raife and Arthur. The trio tackled fearlessly, like Trojans & were strong in the rucks too, but unfortunately, Raife suffered an injury and had to retire with concussion. On came Harry who quickly got to work with organising his team mates and putting in some hard tackles of his own.

The first half seemed to pass quickly but it had certainly been jam packed with action.

It’s fair to say, Southwold in places dominated the second half with some good passing play & sniping runs from back of scrum by Louis. Joe also found space to make a series of excellent attacking moves, but unfortunately just fell short of scoring. Jesse efforts were once again praiseworthy, but his ability to break through were squashed by the home team’s pack of defenders.

Southwold were punished in the scrum too many times & this helped to put Newmarket back in front at 15-7.

With support from the side lines to keep going, Southwold dug deep & started to look on top with Will trying out new Line Out routines which worked well. Nathan, Charlie, Harrison and Jake all battled hard in defence while Callum out on his wing made some exciting runs. At full back, James looked in control and also attacked with promise.

Brushing off a number of tackles, Freddie L scored his 2nd try and followed it with another successful conversion. The score was now 15/14 and the game was proving to be very exciting for players and supporters.

In the last 20 minutes, Freddie P found his own opportunities to demonstrate his strength running at the Newmarket forward line, and those who challenged him experienced the power of his hand offs. Freddie’s try put Southwold on top at 19-15, however with minutes to go, the final last push was now on and credit must go to Newmarket for keeping composure and achieving another try.

At the final whistle just one point split the two teams. Overall, Newmarket were stronger upfront, they played the ball quickly & out wider, and this today gave them the edge.

Southwold coach, Nick commented,

“The lads will learn more from a loss like this than from a massive win. We had winning opportunities today but just didn’t take them, however on a positive, the lads didn’t give up and we will go away and learn from our mistakes”.

Well done to Jim for running the line and many thanks to coach, Nick.

Final score 20-19

Try scorers
Freddie L x 2
Freddie P x 1

Conversions
Freddie L x 2

Newmarket player of match: Sav

Southwold coach’s POM: Freddie P

This weeks report written by Mel and Nick as I was not there unfortunately :)

Southwold Rugby Club

Match details

Match date

Kickoff

Team Sponsors

Login