Sep 17 - M2 Lowestoft&Yarmouth 2 (A)

W 26 - 29  Report & photos

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Crossing into Suffolk the rain was near torrential and it seemed certain Wymondham’s first away day of the season would be dictated heavily by the weather, however as kick off neared the rain cleared away and the sunshine began to beat down in Lowestoft.

Building on last weeks performance Wymondham wanted to do the basics well up front and use the form of the ¾’s to turn pressure into points, Lowestoft clearly were a different challenge to Broadland however and were fast out of the blocks scoring a try wide out within 3minutes of the start.  It was a rude awakening for Wym who have history of starting slowly in seasons past and it was something we had worked hard on to eradicate.  In response the pack chased down Billy’s high re-start and pushed L&Y back into their own 22, forcing them to infringe.  With both Yeates & Billy able to slot 3 pointers Wym pointed to the sticks and our first points were on the board.

It was that passage of play that would form the pattern for the majority of the match as both sides blunted each others attacking prowess with aggressive tackling and counter rucking meaning the gain line was often not broken.  The scoreboard for each side was kept ticking over when penalties were conceded in the range of either teams place kicker and 3 points exchanged.

Half time saw the return of Darren Anema & Jack Turner to third team action and the pair’s aggressive running forced the L&Y penalty count to rise.  This advantage was also reflected in the points with Wym crashing over the line for a try of their own from the forwards.  There were further freshening of the legs by both sides as the game moved into the final third of the match and L&Y raised the tempo of their play as they tried to close the gap on the score board.  The frantic play they adopted crept into Wym style as well and in the space of 5 mins Wym gifted L&Y two break away tries from within their own 22, first from an erstwhile pass, the second from a charged down chip.  This brought the scores all square with only a couple minutes left to play, imagine a heavyweight boxing contest even on the score card as the twelfth and final round gets underway.

Wym decided hit the restart long and deep, hoping an aggressive chase would force a mistake/harried clearance so we’d have field position to launch one last effort at a score.  After a couple of moments of frenzied action L&Y knocked on and the ref awarded a scrum to Wym just inside the 22 and uttered the words “This is the last play of the day gentlemen”.  The ball squirmed uncontrolled out of the back of the scrum allowing L&Y to charge up towards the loose ball, Gus collected the bobbling ball and shipped to Billy who, with little other options, put his head down and swung his boot through the ball…..thankfully L&Y hadn’t put an extra coat of paint on the posts in the summer as the ball barely had the legs, kissing the cross bar on the way through.  Half the Wym team celebrated, the other half took a knee exhausted, L&Y stood aghast as Billy had brought home the bacon with the last kick of the game L&Y 26 vs Wym 29

Credit to L&Y players for a fine contest but even more credit to Wym for keeping heads up and not giving up until the final whistle.