Norwich’s slide down the table continued with another poor performance against a Chelmsford side buoyed by the return of 5 players for the first time this season.

Norwich were unable to make the most of the slope advantage in the first half as penalties kept them pegged back.

They received a warning for their penalty count after just 15 minutes and from that penalty, Chelmsford set up a driving maul to trundle over with their much bigger pack.

They scored again shortly afterwards when Norwich’s defence became disconnected, allowing them to flood through in support and convert. 

On 25 minutes Jake Christian-Goss pulled back three points with a penalty kick.  Danny Van Staden caught the restart and scythed through the defence before kicking over the top and collecting the ball to score a brilliant individual try. Christian-Goss converted. 

At 12:10 a competitive game looked in prospect. However, Charlie Sauverin was sent to the bin for offside and Norwich had lost the referee. 

Chelmsford scored from another penalty in front of the posts which they took quickly and charged over and converted. 

From the restart, Chelmsford evaded two poor tackles on the right to get behind the defensive line and score. The half ended with a score of 26:10. Norwich applied good pressure in the Chelmsford 22 for a period and after several Chelmsford penalties, on about 60 minutes, Norwich threw the ball wide on the right to Liam Haylett  who put Dave Micklethwaite in at the corner.

Christian-Goss converted. At 26:17, whilst not playing well, Norwich were still in the fight. However, another penalty kick to the corner by Chelmsford resulted in a rolling maul which the referee adjudged to be illegally halted and awarded a penalty try, sending Mitch Parker to the bin. 

Norwich still had some bright passages of play and from a scrum on the Chelmsford 22, Liam Haylett picked up from the back and powered forwards, offloading to Reed Watson to go over near to the posts. Christian-Goss converted.

Norwich should have scored from a quick tap penalty on 5 metres but were immediately tackled and no sanction was applied. 

A good kick by Chelmsford to the corner, in open play, resulted in Norwich having to get it off the park and a 5 metre lineout resulted.

Although Norwich stopped the maul, the hosts worked the ball to the left and back again to go over in the right corner. 

As the game wound down, Reed Watson was hit round the head but carded for retaliation. This was upgraded to red for dissent.

Chelmsford seized to opportunity to increase their tally by scoring a try that involved some excellent handling to finish off in the corner. 

Norwich need to quickly sort out what has gone wrong with their game before the visit of high flying Eton Manor in two weeks.