Wisbech Rugby Club narrowly lose opening league match

London North-East Division Three Wisbech 6 Lowestoft and Yarmouth 14

Wisbech slipped to an opening day defeat in a tight encounter with Lowestoft and Yarmouth.

The home side edged in front with two penalties from Mark Laws and were the better side in the first period but failed to hold onto their slender 6-0 half-time lead.

Lowestoft and Yarmouth began to use their weight and power advantage in the second-half and scored two tries in 10 minutes to seal the victory in a game of few try-scoring opportunities.

Wisbech captain, Tom Long, said: “It was a difficult second-half, we lost some key players which put pressure on us in specific areas of the field.

“They’re a well drilled side and they played to their strengths and we didn’t particularly play to ours.

“They’re physically bigger than us. Our game plan was to throw it about and move them around the park and we didn’t do that too much.

“We were hoping in the last 20 minutes we would get on top but we didn’t move the ball well enough in the first 60 minutes so therefore we struggled.

“To be honest I’m a little bit hazy about the middle section anyway as I got a smack on the head.”

Neither side really dominated the stop-start affair as much of the game became a battle for scrum supremacy.

Wisbech looked comfortable going into the break and had never looked threatened yet will be disappointed they failed to cause more problems going forward themselves.

Despite the defeat Long believes many positives can be taken from the match.

“It’s a brilliant benchmark,” he said.

“These guys are always a tough side and it’s good to know we’re not far away already.

“We’re still missing a lot of key players but we can take a lot out of this and build on it for the rest of the season.”