Midsomer Norton RFC lose to Matson

By Guest

21st Jan 2020 | Local Sport

The game began with Norton taking the slight advantage playing down the slope, Norton seemed sharp as they easily gained metres in attack early on.

From a lineout deep inside the Matson 22, Norton orchestrated a driving maul, in which Scott Goddard was on hand to crash over to open the scores, 7-0.

Shortly afterwards Nor stroke again through number 8, Joe Button. After multiple attempts close to the Matson try line the ball found its way to Button who refused to be tackled and inevitably dotted down, 14-0.

Matson then began to wake up, they won a scrum against the head outside the Norton 22, the ball was taken blind by the Matson scrum half who linked up with his winger to dive over in the corner. 14-5. Further handling errors and mistakes from Norton allowed Matson to collect their 2nd try of the game taking the scores to 14-10.

The momentum that Matson created at the end of the 1st half continued throughout the second period, they held on to the ball for long periods starving Norton of the ball, however when Norton did gain possession they were unable to offer any threat towards the organised Matson defence. The visitors scored a further 3 unanswered tries, 2 of these were nearly identical tries where Matson mauled from lineouts and caught Norton napping on the blind side as they ran in virtually unopposed.

Norton had opportunities towards the end of the game, penalty's were kicked to the corner in the hope to score in the final seconds however they were not clinical enough to turn pressure into points. The match finished 14-27 in favour of Matson, who on the day were well deserved winners.

This Saturday Norton are home again to Cheltenham for a 2:30pm kick-off.