Unlike the previous week, Norwich came flying out of the blocks and quickly established a 14 point lead in a game that, frustratingly, never really flowed for either side. The final score did not reflecting how closely the teams were matched.
The first try fell to the prolific Danny Van Staden after Kobe Mardon dropped on a loose ball, which was carried forward by Oli Youngs for Van Staden to step the defender and score. He added the conversion.
On 9 minutes Van Staden scored again, intercepting a Shelford pass, running through unopposed under the posts, which he then converted.
If it looked, at that point, that a comfortable afternoon might be in prospect, it was soon dispelled as Shelford hit back through their impressive backs. From a scrum on the Norwich 22, a loop move stretched the Norwich cover allowing them to go over.
Norwich then scored from a lineout in the Shelford 22 where the opposition throw in bounced loose, was gathered by Dave Micklethwaite who passed to Ollie Marsters on the blind side to go over in the left corner.
Shelford struck back quickly on a penalty advantage and caught Norwich napping, recycling the ball efficiently to go over on the left and convert to 19:14 and Norwich then knew it was not going to be an easy afternoon.
Hooker, Oli Youngs got on the score sheet for the hosts from a sharp piece of work when he threw into the lineout on the Shelford 22 and as the maul formed, the ball was quickly passed to him on the blindside and he went off on a solo run to the line, stretching out and just making it as the tackle came in. The conversion made it 26:14.
Callum Van Staden then found a hole in the Shelford defence to stretch the lead, converted by his brother before Danny was carded just before half time for a deliberate knock on.
31:14 at half time
At the point where Van Staden returned, ten minutes into the half, Jake Bailey replaced him in the bin for killing the ball at the ruck. Shelford then pulled one back as Norwich started conceding penalties and free kicks aplenty, bringing the score to 31:19.
Norwich then went down to 13 men as Eddie Montgomery was carded for an infringement at a ruck. Shelford worked their way upfield, pulling another one back from close range pick and drives through their forwards.
The 13 men of Norwich needed to dig deep as the scores closed in again to 31:26.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man and Danny Van Staden rode his luck with the bounce of the ball to score. His brother Callum put in a high kick to the right touchline, apparently for a positional touch. The ball came down 5 metres from touch and a wicked bounce of the ball sent it straight up in the air, over the head of the advancing Shelford defender and down into the arms of Van Staden who had been following it up. He had a clear run to the line, which he converted.
Van Staden got his fourth for the afternoon from a quickly taken penalty, where his brother had been tackled before he’d picked the ball up from a ruck. He wrong footed the Shelford defence that had not reset, and he rounded the cover to score.
Shelford then went down to 14 men for a deliberate knock on before Louis Fraser intercepted a Shelford pass and ran clear of any defenders, under the posts. The conversion ended the match.
