Norwich 7, Beccles 12RUGBY: Beccles travelled to Norwich for their last warm-up game before starting league action. With the teams passing each other in the leagues last season this was to be a good gauge of what both sides can expect in the coming campaigns.

Norwich 7, Beccles 12

RUGBY: Beccles travelled to Norwich for their last warm-up game before starting league action.

With the teams passing each other in the leagues last season this was to be a good gauge of what both sides can expect in the coming campaigns.

Beccles were able to field a near full strength team with Sale, Hinsley and Payne all starting this week.

To bolster the pack further Ling started on the bench following his return from Australia where he had spent the last six months playing premier rugby for Nelson Bay.

Beccles began to build early pressure through good forward play where the new front row of Porter, Lake and Pitts was being tested.

Beccles should have taken the lead in the early stages of the first half when number eight debutant Wilson made a trademark rampaging run up the centre of the field.

After bursting through several tackles he was unable to get the pass away to the supporting players before being felled by some good defence by Norwich.

The game then began to turn in favour of Norwich who responded better to pockets of broken play.

As Beccles began to take their foot off the gas, Norwich upped a gear and made a number of good line breaking attacks which were only brought to a halt short of the line following some good cover defence from the back three of Vasey-Lark, Murray and Hoffman.

Norwich continued the pressure and were finally rewarded with a try following another passage of broken play.

Following this Beccles introduced Ling to the front row which brought immediate results. His time in Australia had obviously been well spent as he began to cause major problems for Norwich's pack.

After a disallowed try for Wilson Beccles continued to press the Norwich line and following a number of good runs by Gedney play was pushed deep into the Norwich half.

After a number of good forward phases the ball was finally recycled and moved wide where flanker Hinsley displayed his hidden kicking skills with a delicate chip through the Norwich defence.

This ignited Muskey McIntyre man of the match Vasey-Lark who scorched down the wing to win the race for the touch down out wide.

Marksman Wade stepped up to slot the long-range kick to bring the scores level at half-time.

Beccles made changes at half-time with Calver moving to the wing and Tipple and Hewitt coming on in the back row. After early exchanges Beccles drove play into the Norwich 22 before the ball was spun to the towering Wilson.

Bursting towards the Norwich line Wilson looked certain to touch down, only for some good last-ditch defence from Norwich which forced the ball loose on the line.

Norwich then held the upper hand for a sustained period and began to up their game relentlessly battered the Beccles line.

After stubbornly defending their line and some spearing tackles by Tipple, Beccles finally managed to clear their lines to relieve the pressure.

With time running down it looked like the match could be aiming for a draw but from a scrum on the Beccles 22 Wilson again broke from eight swotting a number of would be tacklers aside before off loading to Sale.

The latter then used his pace and unique step to take Beccles to the Norwich 22 line. F

ollowing a number of good phases of play from the forwards with Rix and Johnstone making their size known, the ball went through backs and forwards before finding Hoffman free on the wing to sprint clear and secure the victory for Beccles.

This was a closely contested game, giving both sides some things to work on before the league campaign starts.

Club coach Ian Rees will now do some final adjustments on the training pitch before selecting his side to travel to Saffron Walden for the opening game of the season.