Norwich served up a curate’s egg performance at Wanstead, to come away with two points that owed everything to an improved second half comeback. 

With a strong diagonal breeze against them Norwich found it hard to get out of their 22.  Basic skills errors and soft penalties allowed the hosts to repeatedly pin them back into the corner to which the wind was blowing.

Wanstead scored on 15 minutes from a penalty kick, from which they set up a driving maul and popped the ball out to go over. The kick was missed. 

Wanstead then kicked a scrum penalty through the posts to stretch their lead. 

Norwich finally started to exert some pressure and stopped giving away penalties, allowing Jake Christian-Goss to find a hole in the defence and go over under the posts. He converted his own kick.

Wanstead hit straight back when Norwich overthrew at a lineout in their own half and the hosts gratefully accepted an easy run in and conversion. 

Poor discipline again turned Norwich attack into defence as Wanstead kicked for the corner and set up another driving maul that the visitors could not halt, scoring under the posts and converting. 

An upright tackle by Norwich in front of their posts, set up the easiest of penalties for Wanstead to stretch their lead and a long afternoon looked in the offing.

The referee sent Jack Austin to the  bin as the number of Norwich penalties tried his patience. With a man down and a poor tackle, Wanstead snatched another try before half time to end the half 30:7 and leaving Norwich with a mountain to climb. 

A robust half time talk energised the team and shortly after the restart, Norwich were awarded a penalty 35 metres out and Christian-Goss started the fightback.

The game became rather scrappy for a period with both sides lacking accuracy, particularly at lineout time with the wind, but Norwich were awarded a penalty and Christian-Goss added another 3 points before Wanstead pulled one back of their own, their only points of the half.

James McCaskie then scored in the left corner, as Norwich finally started applying some pressure with patient phase play in the build-up. Christian-Goss added a superb conversion from the touch line. 33:17.

The pressure began to tell and Wanstead conceded numerous penalties, finally ended up with a player carded.

Norwich looked a bit frantic as they knew time was running out and opportunities went begging through lack of accuracy and composure.

Finally, however, they breached the line when Dave Micklethwaite found a hole in the defence to go through under the posts. Christian-Goss drop kicked the conversion to get the game restarted quickly. 

Wanstead fought their way upfield and hammered the Norwich line, threatening to take the game out of reach but a good jackal penalty from Ed Montgomery, kept the game alive for the visitors.

Wanstead’s discipline then fell apart and as the player in the bin returned, one took his place, to be followed by another a few moments later. 

Norwich pounded away at the Wanstead line and with time up, Micklethwaite went over for his second. Christian-Goss added the conversion and the team registered both the four try and losing bonus points that looked a remote possibility at half time.