Holt Seconds 11, Watton 33WATTON travelled to Holt for the opening fixture of the season after a victorious previous weekend warm up rugby game against local rivals Swaffham and won comfortably.

Holt Seconds 11, Watton 33

WATTON travelled to Holt for the opening fixture of the season after a victorious previous weekend warm up game against local rivals Swaffham and won comfortably.

With a strong squad of 20, refreshed this year with some talented emerging younger players to play alongside the experienced senior squad, the club hope to challenge strongly in their 25th year marked with, for the first time for probably 15 years, the formation of a second IV.

With a game plan of intense pressure from the kick off, Holt were rocked by the speed of play from the whistle.

The forwards battled hard against the experienced Holt pack but the strong mix of experience and youth of the Watton front five gave the back row of Barre, Tilley and Gilley the room to disrupt and pressure the Holt backs.

Coupled with the ferocious tackling of the Watton centres Walker and Machell, Holt were pinned repeatedly in their own half for long periods of time.

Watton's first points came 15 minutes into the game from a single handed piece of brilliance from the full-back Turnbull who danced through the opposition one way then the other to ground under the posts and making his job easy to convert, score 0-7.

After continued pressure from the Red and Black forwards, the back line was let loose seeing outside centre Machell working with Stickland to crash home in the far corner for the unconverted try, score 0-12.

The referee, sharp with his whistle, gave Holt the opportunity to open their scoring after two penalty infringements brought them in kicking range, both sailing wide of the mark.

With Holt clearing their lines but not making touch, winger Dobson punished with a counter attack from deep inside the Watton half, making good use of his pace, jinked passed two defenders, fixed his man and slipped to supporting centre Walker.

Walker off-loaded to his number eight Barre, who linked with the side-stepping scrum-half Omer who grounded the ball under the posts 0-19.

Points eventually came for Holt after more infringements by Watton, eager to make something of every loose ball, the two opportunities this time counting as the home side raised the half time score to 6-19.

Eagle, hungry for the ball from the restart and open play, and Graham-Park, the new first team hooker, showed overwhelming passion throughout the game, a mark of great things to come.

The continuing forward pressure by Watton and a well collected ball in the line-out from Bayley allowed the dominant backs to pressure Holt into error deep in their half. Another strong scrum presented quality ball to the back row and into full-back Turnbull's hands for another brilliant piece of play resulting in seven more converted points, score 6-26.

Holt, showing the quality of team they are, kept the pressure on Watton, a sustained period resulting in a scrum five metres out from the Watton try line.

A masterful back-row move through three phases of play saw their flanker Harley come crashing through the Watton defence to score just left of the posts bringing the points tally to 11-26.

The continued pressure saw a wild Holt pass intercepted by the quick hands of outside centre Machell, who powered away from the Watton ten metre leaving the Holt defence in his wake, scoring beneath the posts for the converted final score 33-11.

Skipper Rob Walker was man of the match for leading the way in defence. A huge credit must go to Lee Moxham the new club coach who has been a real inspiration to the players both young and old.

Next week's game: Watton I v Crusaders II at home, 3pm kick-off, all supporters welcome. The second team will face Swaffham II away in a friendly.