Beccles 23, Sth Woodham Ferrers 5BECCLES RFC stayed at the top of the league after victory against a strong South Woodham side. Beccles travel to third-placed Basildon on Saturday.

Beccles 23, Sth Woodham Ferrers 5

BECCLES RFC stayed at the top of the league after victory against a strong South Woodham side.

Beccles travel to third-placed Basildon on Saturday. A win will put them nine points clear of Basildon.

Against Ferrers, Beccles started the game well and had the opposition pinned back. Beccles won a penalty at the scrum which Wade converted for the lead. Soon after this a rampaging run by Rob Wilson ended in another penalty in front of the posts which Wade converted.

Two more penalties followed in the first half, the second of which ended up with the South Woodham number eight sent to the sin bin. This gave a half time score of 12-0.

Wade added another penalty after half-time. Scotchner replaced Hadridge at scrum-half to make his first team debut. He put in a good performance and coped well with the step up to first team rugby.

South Woodham started to put some pressure on the Beccles defence. From a lineout close to the Beccles line the ball was knocked loose over the line. A Beccles player touched the ball down before the South Woodham player grounded it, but the referee missed it and awarded a try.

Beccles came back strongly after this and soon scored a try of their own. Paul Wilson took good ball at the lineout. The Beccles pack drove over the line and Lake touched down for the try.

Wade missed the conversion but soon added another penalty to cap a Musker McIntyre man of the match display.

Beccles U14 22, Swaffham U14 7

Beccles were slow to get into the game and Swaffham were soon on the attack with their powerful fullback full of running. Connor Shipley made with a brilliant last-ditch tackle.

The game settled into a stalemate. Both teams tried to punch their way through but both defences held firm. Beccles tried to move the ball out wide with some excellent passing moves, allowing Gavin Kiernan and James Binding to link well.

Beccles earned a penalty 10 metres out, Lewis Seaman crashing over the line but solid defence holding the ball up.

Swaffham won a penalty after Beccles had hands in the ruck, and the scrum-half was quick to nip in under the posts for 7-0.

Beccles started the second half with more aggression and looked the better side.

The forwards hunted together with Aiden Goldsmith and John May working tirelessly to clear the rucks out, resulting in clean ball for Regan Woodard to dive over for a well-deserved try.

Seb Morton was impressive all game with a very high workrate.

From the kick-off Cameron Armstrong, who had several strong runs, returned the ball deep into the Swaffham half only to be tackled just short of the line. But Lewis Seaman was unstoppable as he drove his way over, helped by the rest of the forwards. Regan converted.

Two great breaks by the backs allowed Gavin Kiernan to score twice for Beccles, sealing the match.

Mr King's MoM: Connor Shipley and Seb Morton. Wednesday training 7 to 8pm. Next match away to Diss.