Swaffham set for final

Swaffham rugby players hope to brush off their league defeat at the hands of Newmarket when they play in the Norfolk Plate final at home on Saturday versus Broadland.

Swaffham suffered their second home league defeat of the season as Newmarket dominated the fixture, winning 17-3.

DJ Barnard was forced to make a trademark tackle twice early on as the Newmarket powered out of their half.

Good interlinking play saw the Newmarket fly-half over for the first score. The conversion missed.

Swaffham then upped the ante, winning ball with big defence and then retaining possession. A good spell ensued as captain Chamberlain and full-back Del Bartlett put in a big hit on the Newmarket full-back.

A penalty was awarded to Swaffham for holding on and then followed a strong Swaffham spell. Lines made good yardage through his boot and the subsequent Swaffham line-out was won by the towering M Taylor.

Murray was running off the line-out and broke the defence with superb crash ball. Gunnell followed suit moments later.

Excellent phase play in the pack saw Swaffham metres from the line, the ball was spread to the backs who were well tackled by the Newmarket defence. Still the tenacity of Swaffham saw possession retained.

The Newmarket defence stayed firm though and they won the ball as the ball was spilled from a heavy tackle.

In the second half Newmarket turned to their strong, quick backs for a score. It came from good line-out ball and then was spread wide, and was converted.

Swaffham got themselves on the board as good forward pressure saw a penalty awarded on the 22. Webb duly kicked the three points.

Gladman made a surge following the restart but, with only minutes remaining, Newmarket won ball in their half and drove through the heart of Swaffham's defence to score again.

It was not converted, so the final score was 17-3 Newmarket.

Thurlow Nunn MoM was the hard-hitting, fast-running outside-centre J Taylor.