Manor welcomed North Walsham to the New Wilderness with the match being preceded by a Christmas lunch. After the poor showing in the last couple of matches, Manor were keen not to show their visitors too much Christmas cheer on the pitch and as the result showed, they succeed in this.

Walsham kicked off the match and although in the opening minutes they had the lions share of possession it wasn’t until the first scrum of the match that the signs of things to come came to light. The Manor 8 drove their opponents backwards and as the Walsham front row stood up under the pressure they were under, the ref awarded the first of what turned out to be a number of penalties to Manor at scrum time. The ball was kicked deep into Walsham’s 22 for a line out. This was an area that was poor the previous week, but Manor had obviously been working on it as the throw was won by Harry Reid allowing Manor to set up an attack inside the visitors 22, but good defence finally paid dividends when Manor knocked the ball on allowing Walsham to clear the danger.

Manor were now in the ascendency and good runs by ex Walsham player Rhys Davis-Horne and winger Ollie Phillips ensured that the Walsham defence was tested. With play centred around the opponents 22, Manor won a couple of penalties which they kicked to touch. On the second occasion the thrown in was again secured by Reid and Manor set up a driving maul which eventually saw prop George Cosma go over the line for Manors first try. With Nick Sheppard successful with the conversion from out wide, Manor had taken an early 7 – 0 lead.

From the restart Manor secured the ball and Ollie Waugh drove upfield before scrumhalf Nick Horton pinned Walsham back deep inside their 22 with a box kick. Although Walsham secured the ball they tried to run the ball out of defence, here Manor pressurised them into knocking the ball on and in the process winning an attacking scrum 8 meters out. Again Manor drove the Walsham pack backwards, this time driving them over the try line and with the ball being controlled by No 8 Garth Tucker he was able to pick up and score Manors second try. Although the conversion was missed Manor had increased their lead to 12 – 0 after 14 minutes of the game.

From the restart Walsham had a period of possession testing Manors defence which this week looked solid and well organised, this caused Walsham to kick away possession on a few occasions as they were not making any progress trying to run through Manors defence.

Manor continued to attack and after a good break by Ollie Waugh, they created a possible scoring opportunity, only for a knock on to stop the promising attack. Walsham took advantage of this and kicked the ball upfield and a good chase by them put Manor under pressure, but as the visitors fought for possession they knocked the ball on. At the scrum Manor won another penalty which they kicked into Walsham’s 22. With the throw in secured by Frank Sullivan, Manors forwards took the ball on with good drives by Cosma and John Robinson before sending the ball along the line but another promising attack ground to a halt, this time because the ref got in the way of a pass and had to award a set scrum.

As the half wore on, both sides were making basic handling errors but Manor still looked the more dangerous of the two sides with Moe Alotham and Tucker prominent with ball in hand, but Manor were unable to capitalise on their possession and as the half drew to a close it was Walsham who were finishing the stronger of the two sides.

From a lineout inside their half, Walsham won the ball and their centre made a clean break up the middle of the park taking play into Manors 22, here the ball was quickly recycled and only a double tackle by Luigi Martelletti and Callum McKie prevent a Walsham backrower from scoring, at the ruck Manor drove over but gave away a penalty which Walsham kicked to the corner. With their throw in secured Walsham drove towards the line and although Manor repelled a couple of drives, good ball retention eventually saw Walsham cross the line for a 7 point score and with the ref blowing for halftime immediately after the successful conversion Manor went into the break with a slender 12 – 5 lead.

Manor kicked off the second half and immediately put Walsham under pressure with good territorial kicking by McKie pinning Walsham deep inside their half. Manor were awarded and won a lineout which they drove 15 meters forward before releasing the ball to their backs, where Alotham broke through a couple of tackles before sending a long pass out to Davis-Horne who had joined the attack from fullback. The ex Walsham player ignore a possible overlap and stepped back inside his man breaking through the attempted tackle before racing to the corner to score against his old team. Sheppard was unsuccessful with the difficult conversion and with 4 minutes of the second half played Manor had extended their lead to 17 – 7.

From the restart Martelletti kicked the ball deep into Walsham’s territory and as the visitors tried to run the ball back at Manor, they were driven back in the tackle by Davis-Horne who drove his man back a number of meters winning Manor a scrum. With yet another penalty being awarded at the scrum Manor kicked for a lineout 8 meters from Walsham’s line. Manor secured the throw then drove forwards through Tucker who then fed Sullivan who again drove on being brought down a couple of meters short of the line. Horton picked the ball up from the base of the ruck and moved towards his backline then fed the ball back towards the on rushing Michael Eghan who came in off his wing and crashed through a couple of tackles before going in under the posts for Manors bonus point try. With Sheppard successful with the conversion Manor now led 24 – 7 after 9 minutes of the half. After the try both sets of forwards had a dust up resulting in Cosma for Manor and Walsham’s No 8 being sent to the bin to cool off for 10 minutes.

With both sides a man down Walsham soon hit back with a try of their own closing the gap to 10 points with a converted try. This give the visitors confidence as they continued to attack Manor and when a kick through was not dealt with by Manors defence, Walsham reacted the quickest kicking the ball into the dead ball area then winning the race to the touch down and within the space of 5 minutes they had reduce the deficit to only 3 points at 24 – 21 after 18 minutes of the second half.

Manor now re-established their control on the game with a series of powerful forward drive with Alfi Hutcherson, substitute Michael Byrne and Reid all making good ground taking play close Walsham’s 22 where a ruck was set up. From the back of the ruck Reid again set off on a run, breaking through two tackles before galloping towards the line with just the fullback to beat. As he got within 5 metres of the try line the fullback caught Reid and brought him to ground just short of the line, Reed landed on his back but managed to roll out of the tackle twisting his body and stretching to the line to score a very well taken try. The conversion was missed but Manor had increased the gap to 8 points at 29 – 21 with 25 minutes played.

Walsham still had plenty of fight in them and took the game to Manor where the hosts defence had to be at its best to stop Walsham from breaking through, things were made a little bit harder when Ollie Waugh put in a thunderous tackle which the ref deemed dangerous so sent Manors flanker to the bin for ten minutes.

Manor still controlled the game and despite being a man down in the pack were still winning penalties at scrum time which allowed them to keep the pressure on Walsham by kicking deep into their territory. With another penalty won for a scrum infringement the ref yellow carded a Walsham prop, this coincided with Manor being returned to full strength with Waugh returning from the bin. Unfortunately for Manor, Walsham could not field another prop so the scrums had to go uncontested taking away one of Manors major weapons.

Even so Manor continued to pressurise Walsham’s 22 and with quick ball McKie put in a grubber kick for Martelletti to chase but with the line beaconing he was unable to gather the ball cleanly. From the resulting scrum Walsham tried to run the ball from deep but Manor were aggressive in defence winning a penalty which they kicked for a lineout inside Walsham’s 22. Here Reid won the thrown in allowing Manor to set up a driving maul, Walsham done well to stop the drive but Waugh broke off the back of the maul and drove over the line for yet another Manor try. With McKie taking on kicking duties he added the extra points taking the score to 36 – 21.

With time almost up Manor secured the restart then after good runs by Robinson and Brad Burrell the ball was fed out to Martelletti on the wing. From inside his half the speedy Italian stepped inside his opposite number taking play into Walsham’s half, with defenders approaching him he again showed excellent footwork to round both would be tacklers taking play to Walsham’s 22. Here faced by the last defender Martelletti feigned to go inside his man then changed direction and skipped past his man on the outside, hugging the touchline he headed for the try line pursed by further Walsham defenders, but Martelletti had too much pace and dived over in the corner for a superb solo try. The touchline conversion went wide which signalled the end of the match and a much need Manor victory by 41 – 21.

Manor had put in a much better performance than that of previous weeks and were deserved victors. Next week Manor travel to top of the league Chingford who were victorious in the previous meeting of the two side at the very beginning of the season. Manor will have to perform better than they did against North Walsham, but if they can raise their game they are capable of a performance to trouble the league leaders.