Norwich’s opening game against Braintree was a tight and tense affair as the two newly promoted sides, from parallel leagues, fought it out but at some cost to the visitors.  

With the strong wind at their backs in the first half, Norwich applied most of the early pressure. They scored first after 6 minutes, fielding a 22 kick and driving forward to within 10 metres of the Braintree line. The ball was spun out to the right and debutant Callum Van Staden went over in the corner. An excellent conversion was added from Jake Christian-Goss. 

On 15 minutes, a missed tackle from Norwich gave Braintree space to move the ball wide on the right and they ran the ball in under the posts and added the conversion to level the score.  After 20 minutes Callum Van Staden came off injured but Norwich were soon to stretch their lead after a series of pick up and drives near the post from where Dave Micklethwaite picked up and went over from 5 metres out with Christian-Goss adding the conversion. 

Norwich enjoyed good field position for extended periods but failed to find a hole in the Braintree defence, which was impressively solid.  On 34 minutes, Braintree lost a player to the bin for a deliberate knock on.

Two minutes later, Norwich had a scrum 5 metres out and again, patiently built the phases before Steve Soper dived over to score with Christian-Goss adding the conversion. 

The score remained 7:21 at half time but Norwich suffered another cruel blow as influential No 8 Soper came off with a possible re-break to his arm that he broke last season.  There was concern that the wind assistance may render the lead insufficient. 

Braintree were first on the board in the second half with a penalty for Norwich hanging on, from around half way, in front of the posts.  Norwich, despite the wind, kept the pressure on Braintree and had several great opportunities to score but dropped the ball 2 metres from the line and on another were held up short.

They were eventually awarded a penalty in front of the posts and, given their lack of penetration of the Braintree defence, sensibly opted to kick it, stretching their lead to 10:24.  Norwich then benefitted from a very timely interception try from fullback Tom Regester on the left wing. The kick on the touchline was missed. 

Braintree profited from a Norwich mistake when a clearance kick was charged down and the ball bounced favourably for the hosts to feed the ball inside to score under the posts, narrowing the score to 17:29. 

Braintree’s backs looked slick and accurate all afternoon and from a quick scrum ball they set their back line running and found a way to cut back against the grain from wide on the left, to beat the Norwich defence.  The conversion took the score to  24:29 and made things look uncomfortably tight as the clock wound down.

However, Norwich played smart rugby and for the last 10 minutes kept play in the Braintree half. This paid dividends as the pressure told and another debutant, Jake Bailey, latched onto an interception and charged forward to the line on the final play of the game. 

The kick was missed but Norwich took all 5 points.

The injuries to Van Staden and Soper may will be of great concern to Norwich, added to their already significant injury list.