Wisbech made the short 15-mile journey to local rivals West Norfolk for their Counties 1 Eastern counties league fixture on Saturday.
The game lived up to its historically fiery nature and started with some huge clashes within the first 15 minutes.
West Norfolk had the ascendancy and came close to crossing the Wisbech line had it not been for some heroic stubborn last ditch defence.
The first half was an extremely tight affair with both sides ending up on the wrong side of the referee’s notebook with Wisbech loosing MJ Wright on debut, Solomon Prestidge and Raimondas Vinksna were sent to the sin bin over the course of the first half.
Despite the physicality and intensity, the first half lacked any real quality and the score board remained 0-0 at the break.
Similarly to previous weeks Wisbech were tentative from the start of the second half and West scored the opening try and a penalty early as they stretched the Wisbech defence and take a 8-0 lead.
This could have led to the home side running away with it but Wisbech had other ideas.
The second half saw Wisbech play with more belief in attack and pierced the West defence on a number of occasions but didn’t have the composure to support or convert this pressure into points.
Wisbech finally got onto the scoreboard in the 60th minute with captain Jack Malkin converting the penalty kick to reduce the West lead 8-3.
The men in red then experienced a period of dominance that resulted in a Wisbech try in the corner from short range by Raimondas Vinksna to level the scores 8-all with 10 minutes to play.
However, some West Norfolk interplay caused the Wisbech defence to scramble and the men in red gave away a penalty that the West Norfolk fly half slotted bringing the score to 11-8 to the home side.
Despite some positive play from the men in red for the remainder of the match, they could not convert the pressure and territory into points, the match ending 11-8 to the host West.
In a very physical intense match which at time got pretty heated, Wisbech lacked the confidence in both attack and defence to really get over the line.
Captain Jack Malkin commented: “The frustration is that we have it within us but it’s just believing we can go and upset teams like this that’s the stumbling block at the minute, but it will come”.
Wisbech Man of the Match was the ever young James Napier, whose tackling and never-say-die attitude was simply outstanding.
Wisbech welcome Bury St Edmunds to Harecoft Road on Saturday in search of their first league victory in their last game before the Christmas break, kick off 2pm.
Leonard Veenendaal
Director of Rugby at WRUFC
Website: www.pitchero.com/clubs/wisbechrufc
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wisbechrufc/
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