This was Norton's first home league game of the season and after intense training sessions in the week, they fully intended to put last week's performance behind them.
The visitors were immediately put under pressure by the fired-up home side and were made to play in their own half for large periods of the half. Unfortunately, Norton's line-out did not function as well as normal and so could not take advantage of territory gained by some intelligent kicking by the home half-backs, Martin Blackmore and James Abbott.
Salisbury did show glimpses of what they could do in attack, but Norton worked hard in defence, stopping all but one of the visitors' attacks. Norton scored their first home try of the season when a free kick was awarded at a scrummage which was taken quickly. Blackmore tapped and ran quickly into the Salisbury defence, before passing back inside to Denning, who carried on the attack before slipping the ball to Abbott to score under the posts. Rideout added the conversion. The half ended all square at 7–7 apiece.
Norton started the second half with fourteen men as James Fuller finished off his ten-minute break for a yellow card. Making the most of this man advantage and some half-time advice from their Coach, Salisbury ran in three quick tries.
Norton were now on the back foot as their opposition upped the intensity to their game. The visitors' big back row started to win the breakdown area and attack down the wider channels, creating good quick ball for their quick, well-drilled backs. Salisbury controlled much of the half and scored several more tries as the game progressed.
Norton did score after a series of pick and go drives by the forwards, sucked in the defence, allowing Robbie Fuller to score when the ball was spun wide.
Norton's problems were compounded when Joe Button, Rob Fuller and Tom Rideout were all injured and had to be replaced and the side rearranged. The replacements all made their mark on the game, especially Jamie Rose, who made yard after yard carrying the ball at the opposition. Norton came close to scoring on several occasions, the best chance was when James Abbott crossed the line to put the ball down in the corner, but was adjudged to have put his foot in touch. The final score was 54–14 to the visitors. Next Saturday, Norton travel to Wareham to face league leaders, Swanage and Wareham.