Norwich 30 Chelmsford 0
London 2NE

Chelmsford travelled to Norwich on Saturday for their first fixture of the season. A young and inexperienced team found the opposition in good form.
The problem throughout the game for Chelmsford was that they could not get enough good ball from their forwards. As a consequence, they had less than twenty five percent possession, and spent a large part of the game defending. The tackling from the young Chelmsford side was excellent for the first hour of the game but as the game progressed they gradually tired.
The first half was a close affair with Norwich kicking a solitary penalty to lead 3 – 0 at half time. Chelmsford seldom came into the Norwich half, although they missed a kickable penalty just before half time. Chelmsford were under pressure in the scrums and lineouts were seldom won.
After half time, Norwich kicked another penalty to make it 6 – 0. New skipper Nick Sam, endeavoured to galvanise his team, but as the game went on, the team got on the wrong side of the referee and many penalties were given away. This allowed Norwich to kick for position and put the Chelmsford team under pressure near their line.
In the final twenty minutes as the Chelmsford team tired, the Norwich scrum increased their pressure and scored two tries from their forward play, one from a catch and drive and one froma a catch and drive from a lineout. Chelmsford to their credit at this stage started to run strongly at the opposition, with Redford in the fore, but ball retention was poor.
During the last ten minutes, Norwich scored two further tries, one from poor tacking and a penalty try in the last minute following concerted pressure.
So this was a disappointing start to the season for Chelmsford. First team Coach, Sid Hoult will be hoping that a number of unavailable players find their way back ready for selection. Chelmsford need to win more possession than the scraps they had on Saturday, if they are to win games this season
Next week Chelmsford play away at Rochford kick off