Eastern Counties 1: Wymondham 16 Ipswich YM 20

A WELL-ORGANISED YM team kicked off their season with a narrow victory against their hosts, who were celebrating their 40th anniversary.

The hosts looked set to take the victory but a moment of madness by a back row, as the game was coming to a conclusion, saw the visitors take victory.

Against a much-changed team from last season, YM kicked off in near perfect conditions and, within five minutes, had put the first points on the board with a penalty after Wymondham were caught offside. The hosts levelled things up however when James Wyatt despatched a penalty.

However, Ipswich’s superior power in the set-pieces was causing problems for Wymondham and the home side’s scrum half Wyatt was invariably taking ball going backwards or finding the put-in reversed as the scrum rotated.

Wymondham went 6-3 up following another Wyatt penalty, however, they were soon behind when YM scored a converted try after winning a good line-out.

After a period of scrappy play with the defences dominating, Wymondham won a scrum against the head and captain Josh Wright made a trademark surging break through the middle and timed perfectly his off-load to fly-half Simms who scampered in to score under the posts.

Wyatt made short work of the conversion to give Wymondham the lead 13-10.

Wymondham scored the first points of the second half, Wyatt again showing his class with another penalty, but then followed a period of sustained Ipswich pressure.

A series of five-metre scrums resulted and eventually Ipswich forced their way over the line but the conversion was missed.

As the half drew to a close with the hosts a point ahead, a Wymondham player launched himself over the ruck and conceded a needless penalty which YM took quickly, drove upfield and, with excellent interplay between forwards and backs, scored to the right of the home posts.