On Saturday the First Team welcomed Bradford on Avon to Norton Down for their first home league game of the 2015–16 season. The teams ran out into bright sunshine and with the pitch in perfect condition, the crowd were hoping for a good open running game.

Both teams tried to fulfil the spectators’ wishes and started to spread the ball wide. But Norton’s first try came when prop, Matthew Edgell, powered over, finishing off a forward drive. Ben Taylor added the extra points.

For the second week running, the Norton pack became dominant in the scrummage and after a collapse, the referee finally realised what was happening in the front row and awarded the home side a penalty. From the penalty, Ben Taylor kicked to touch and from the resulting lineout Norton continued to show their forward power and this allowed Captain, Matthew Denning, to score the home side’s second try from a push over.

Bradford scored either side of half-time, their scrum half scored under the posts after a sniping run from the base of the scrum. Their lively backs finished off a sweeping move down the right hand side to score near the posts – both tries were against the run of play, showing how good Bradford were with turnover ball.

The home team had now realised that the best way to put pressure on Bradford was the most direct route rather than succumbing to the temptation of throwing the ball about. As the attacks had ended with the ball carrier being isolated when the Bradford defence competed for the ball. The Norton forwards started picking up the pace of their attacks and this started making holes in the visitors’ defence. This allowed Denning to score, crashing over the try line. He completed his hat trick with a second push-over try, for which he must thank his pack for their efforts.

Norton’s final try came from fly half, Ben Moon, who side-stepped and dummied his way over the line, scoring near the posts. Along the way, Ben Taylor collected ten much needed points from the boot, keeping the scoreboard ticking over.

The afternoon ended with Norton securing their first home win of the season and they will be looking forward to next week’s fixture against local rivals, Frome. S. Blackmore