Norfolk leave Barns green with envy!

Barns Green vs Norfolk matches of late have always been hard but fair and typically only won in the last few minutes, yesterdays match was true to form.

With the torrential rain on Friday there was a chance that the pitch was going to be wetter than an otters pocket, thankfully this was not the case and a perfect playing surface and conditions were the order of the day.

I must apologise for this truncated report, as with all on the touchline I was too engrossed in every phase of play to give any forethought to writing a post match glossary...

Barns Green kicked the game off and from the first few phases it was clear they were intent on bringing a very physical game to the Norfolk. Sadly from our point of view this resulted in them scoring two tries (one converted) within the first ten minutes of the match. We were 12-0 down and a little stunned.
It must be said that the Norfolk game was not the same as we have seen in previous weeks, that being a rather pedestrian and error strewn display of miscommunication. Thankfully the ferocity of the BG start started to set us alight too and as a result of some well placed passing and runs Simon Robotham glided over the line and under the posts to score our first try, sadly Tim Laker missed the conversion. 12-5
BG upped the anti once more and scored an odd try under our posts a little less than 5 minutes later. the conversion was slotted. 19-5. Time to panic? not yet...
Norfolk again pressed and were finally rewarded with a penalty in front of posts giving us a half time score of 19-8.
Second half was a very different game. Norfolk pack started to dominate, clever use of some impact players from the bench - including a debut for Will Farthing - and some great runs into space from our back line started to pay dividends and ask Barns Green questions they hadn't got the answers for. James Barr was the first to the try line off of some fine close quarter rucking, sadly Tim Laker missed this conversion from touch, but we were clawing back the score, 19-13. All credit to BG who were now clinging on and defending well. Norfolk could smell a win and when we crept past the 70 minute mark we pushed on even harder. Finally our hard work was rewarded when Toby English finished off a superb try just to the right of posts. Tim Laker stepped up and kicked the winning conversion. 19-20. The last 5 minutes saw the Norfolk go looking for the killer points, these game by way of a penalty kick in the last minute to secure a 20-24 away win for the Norfolk Arms.

Great result, great spirit and exciting game.

Must add that Will Farthing was excellent on debut for the club. Having trained so hard this summer with us, it was a real pleasure to finally see him get is rewards.

St. Francis at home in the Sussex Plate next Saturday. 2.30pm kick off. See you all there! Its a dedicated Club Day.