Norton travelled to North Cheltenham for the much anticipated and long awaited return to competitive league rugby on Saturday.

The home squad had a talented line-up with an international flavour, including five Fijians and two Samoans among others. Midsomer Norton’s squad, (including the coach), was exclusively comprised of players who have come through the youth system. Teamwork, togetherness and extra quality triumphed on the day.

From kick-off, Midsomer Norton dominated the set-piece and tactical battle, the scrum was a mis-match and tidy, organised lineout execution and mauling gave the away side a clinical edge. Excellent phase play in attack and superb aggressive defence created situations where Cheltenham North gave away penalties under pressure. These were kicked expertly into the corner by Murphy and resulted in seven tries and one penalty try from these similar positions. Skipper Tom Fear was impossible for North to deal with as he bagged one, Sawkins two and Button scored his usual four.

Cheltenham North scored some excellent tries of their own with some exciting individual running and offloading that brought some respite to their players and something to cheer for the large home crowd. It was Norton, however, who continued to dominate and they were rewarded with tries out wide from debutant, Behoo, powerful centre, Watts and two from Smith, who was particularly impressive.

The policy to trust in our talented youngsters paying dividends as they gain experience and rapidly improve, playing with confidence and freedom. Simple, fast, hard running and crisp passing was evident and very pleasing to see for all Nortonians. Ben Taylor led the young backline in a mature manner, looking dangerous in attack and solid in defence.

A fine start to the season with the final score being 27 – 72 to Midsomer Norton. David Sawkins was unfortunate to suffer a dislocated shoulder in the second half and had to go to hospital. He was having a storming game when it happened and we hope to see him back playing soon.

Steve Blackmore