The Thirds kicked off the New Year with a hard-fought win over Keynsham at Norton Down last Saturday.
With a large squad to choose from, Norton made a number of changes at half-time to ensure everyone participated in a very good win. The mixture of youth and experience augers well for the remainder of the season, allowing Norton to run in five tries to ensure a bonus point victory.
Norton started well and a prolonged spell of pressure allowed prop, Phil Dunn, to power over from close range.
Winger, Ben Murphy, was very unlucky not to score when he just failed to ground the ball following a good kick ahead. Number eight, Matthew Denning, was soon on-hand though to finish off an impressive driving maul and increase the lead.
Keynsham showed their fighting spirit and fought their way back into the game, scoring a try of their own to make the half-time score 14–7.
The half-time changes allowed the Keynsham pack to initially grab the ascendancy and they dominated the first couple of scrums, whilst the new look Norton side adapted to the game. Norton, however, still showed the resolve to extend their lead when scrum half, Andrew Best, pounced on a loose pass to score.
The visitors' pack were beginning to control the ball though and they soon closed the gap when a strong scrum allowed their fly half to kick through and win the race to touch down under the posts. The converted try put them back within one point.
Norton responded well to this challenge and their pack soon regained parity. This allowed them to more than hold their own and the introduction of fly half, Julian Hawkins, tipped the game back in their favour. His driving runs kept Keynsham on the back foot and this freed up room for Norton to attack.
Hooker, Dan Backhurst, made a welcome return from injury and capitalised on this space to add two tries in fairly quick succession to enable Norton to ensure victory.