Beccles II 24, Southwold II 23

RUGBY: Beccles seconds tavelled to Southwold on Saturday hoping to rid themselves of recent poor form.

The game began in a sloppy fashion, both teams making handling errors and neither being able to stamp their authority on the game.

The Beccles front row, consisting of King and Rix, dominated the scrums throughout the game. The first try came from Hoffman who hit a good line and finished well under the posts. Hoffman was then sin-binned along with a Southwold player for the afters that followed.

With this, a period of sloppy play from Beccles allowed Southwold to get back into the game courtesy of a penalty and a drop-goal, leaving the score at half-time 7-6.

The second half began with the Southwold forwards dominating the line-out.

This allowed them to score two tries in quick succession. Armstrong was then brought on and immediately made an impact.

A Cooper sidestepped his man and fed Armstrong, who sped down the line and scored in the corner. Puxely converted with a superb kick.

Man-of-the-match Long was rampant from full-back throughout the half and grabbed a try for himself with a good solo run.

Hewitt and Cornelius were effective throughout the game in the loose. Southwold continued to fight back, and the fly-half added another drop goal to his tally.

The game was sealed when Puxely looped a pass over to captain on the day, Goode, who dived to put Beccles eight points clear.

With Beccles having six key players injured throughout the game, Southwold piled on the pressure and crashed over the line, despite a valiant effort from the Beccles defence.

The final score was 24-23 to Beccles.