Wisbech's unbeaten run was halted on Saturday after a disappointing 24-26 loss against West Norfolk at Harecroft Road on Saturday afternoon, writes director of rugby Leonard Veenendaal.
Tries from Henry Lankfer, Jos Anderson, a brace from Will Borham and a Bowsers man-of-the-match performance from veteran hooker Nathaniel Humphreys were not enough for the Men in Red to secure the win, in spite of the visitors being restricted to only two tries.
Wisbech made the perfect start 15 minutes into the game with a trademark Henry Lankfer intervention when an attacking lineout was brought down seven meters from the try line, Lankfer spotted the space, calling for the ball, scrum half Jack Malkin switched direction the off loaded found Lankfer in the 5m channel who burst through for a the first try in the left hand corner.
West Norfolk replied with a try of their own with West fly half Jack Wicks converting to put the visitors 7-5 in the lead.
West would maintained their pressure well as they added a further three points on the board through a Jack Wicks’s penalty to extend their lead to 10-5.
But the Men in Red replied scoring an excellent try when this time Will Borham burst through the defence before a delightful little dummy pass set him free to dive over in the right hand corner to put Wisbech back into the lead.
Ten minutes later, West Norfolk had their second try of the contest to level the scores level at 10 all when the two teams going into the half time break.
West took the lead after the break with a well taken drop goal to make it 13-10.
Wisbech were punished for ill-discipline when MJ Wright was shown a yellow card for a high tackle, Wicks on target with the penalty to extend their lead to 16-10 in favour of the visitors.
Wisbech's offensive defence was paying dividends, a dominant James Napier tackle turned the ball over deep in the West 22-meter area and after several good carries from the forwards, Josh Anderson drove over the line, Malkin added the extras to give the home side a one point 17-16 lead.
But this lead was short lived as West Norfolk replied with a converted try of their own to reclaim the lead 23-17.
With just over 15 minutes remaining, Wisbech were back on the attack after an outstanding 50/22 kick from Darryl Veenendaal put the Men in Red deep in the West 22-meter.
After some patient attacking play led to a penalty 5m from the West try line, a quick tap penalty released Will Boreham who power his way over the whitewash for his second try, Malkin conversion on target to reclaim the lead 24-23
Penalties were costing the home side and West made it count with another successful penalty to snatch the lead 24-26 with less than 5 minutes to play.
A further two opportunity went astray when the Wisbech had two penalty kicks drift to the right.
West withstood late pressure from the Men in Red as they continued to manage the game well and saw out the win to setup a highly anticipated rematch on the return fixture on December 21.
Make no mistake West Norfolk were good, they were patient and took the opportunities well.
We had a couple of opportunities to execute some plays and we dropped the ball, so from that point of view there’s a good lesson there for how accurate you’ve got to be against the top sides in this league.
We made a number of really poor decisions in crucial parts of the game, when we were leading 24-23 in our 22-meter area should have played territory first, the moment got to us opting to play too much rugby in our own half and it cost us dearly which was not what the situation needed.
But I think their ability to stay in the fight – they never threw the towel in – and then to fight back and score four tries against top class opposition like West is pleasing.
Wisbech will hope to bounce back to winning ways when they host Woodbridge at Harecroft Road on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.
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