Norwich’s young side discovered what happens when you don’t bring your A-game to a fixture, when they suffered their first defeat of the season at Cantabrigian, who clearly wanted it more.
It was a performance so far removed from last week’s as to be unrecognisable as the same side. The previous week’s result was built on fierce tackling that was mostly absent, as they sat back and passively let Cantabs run at them.
It all started well enough with an early try for Matt Austin after 3 minutes from a scrum, when he received the ball and stepped the defender to go over.
Sadly that was a false dawn for Norwich and despite having large amounts of possession, opportunities went begging when they kicked away possession needlessly, threw poor passes or frequently infringed.
Cantabs scored 3 tries that all resulted from Norwich errors or indiscipline, none of which were converted.
Kobe Mardon then pulled one back after some good work on the right, with a solo effort to the line. Norwich then lost Charlie Hawkins to injury which was a huge blow.
Cantabs hit back when poor tackling allowed a straightforward move to result in a try. The first conversion of the afternoon went over to take the score to 22:10.
Norwich then suffered another blow when Matt Austin was tip tackled after the ball had gone and left concussed. The offender received just a yellow card.
At half time, the fog started to descend in earnest and Norwich scored from a superb solo run by Charlie Kerrison down the right touch line, bouncing defenders as he went. He was pulled down 10 metres short of the line and the ball recycled across the posts. A high tackle near the line was penalised and Norwich took it quickly for Louis Fraser to dive over. The kick narrowed the gap to 22:17.
Having been warned earlier, James McCaskie was then carded for talking to the referee. Cantabs scored but from the other end of the pitch, it was impossible to see what happened because the fog was so dense, but play continued.
Norwich, whilst looking well below their best, were not quite out of contention and some good carrying by forwards Oli Youngs and Charlie Sauverin was taken up by Eddie Montgomery for Jake Christian-Goss to finish and Lewis Kenworthy’s conversion ended their scoring for the afternoon.
However, basic skills errors at crucial points meant Norwich could not maintain any pressure and Cantabs scored twice more, somewhere in the fog which had frankly, become ridiculous to continue playing in.
Norwich will hope for the return of some of their key players before the next game against unbeaten league leaders Saffron Walden in two weeks.
