Norton travelled to Gloucester with a team weakened by injuries and players refusing to travel, the squad included the club’s First, Second and Third team Captains. Their run of injuries continued when early in the game, Murphy, having looked a threat every time he got the ball, pulled up with a hamstring injury. Fly half, Abbott, soon joined him on the side line, as it became obvious that he had been forced to return from injury too soon.
The team tried to build some possession of a strong scrummage but were over committing at the breakdown leaving mismatches when the home side span the ball quickly. The Matson side played the game at pace with support players always available on the ball carrier’s shoulder, to carry the move on. The half ended with the Home side having an unassailable 44-point lead.
Norton started the second half better, tightening the game up and stopped kicking aimlessly. This had been giving the Matson team ball for which they had not had to compete. Unfortunately, several handling mistakes close to the line deprived Norton of scoring opportunities, and allowed the home side to turn the ball over and counter attack, running tries in from their own 22.
The team found themselves with fourteen players as the game entered the final quarter, running out of replacements to cover the injured players.
The Norton team, playing with pride, never gave up and got their only score in the dying minutes of the game when Matson infringed in their 22 metre area. The Norton Captain turned down the easy three points and decided to take the scrum option. Winning the ball, Denning picked up at the base and ran wide, giving the ball to Mitchard on the diagonal line to score under the posts. Rideout added the extra points.
This capped a fine game for Mitchard, as he had been finding holes in the Matson defence all afternoon, but never quite being able to beat the covering players.
Although suffering an 80–7 defeat, the players were able to return to the Norton clubhouse at 6 p.m. to drown their sorrows with their heads held high, having given their all in adversity to represent their club.