Wymondham 15-25 East London

Wymondham 15-25 East London
Tries: Anderson (2), Clarke, Killeen. Pen: Power. Con: Power
East London picked up their first points away from home this season as they collected all five on offer at Norfolk club Wymondham.
It was the home side who started the stronger however, making a couple of early breaks and taking an early scrum against the feed. Unlike in other games this season though, East London refused to let this early pattern become the norm, going on to dominate most of the rest of the game and restricting their hosts to very few chances.
An early penalty from Connor Power seemed to settle East London down and they began to play with confidence and pace, making breaks in the Wymondham defence and applying pressure as Wymondham began to give away penalties in their efforts to compete at the breakdown. The home side did manage to draw level with a well-struck penalty of their own but were soon behind again as prop Richard Clarke picked up his first try of the season, barging over the line with a little help from his pack. Power slotted the conversion to take East London to a 10-3 lead.
Next, newly appointed defence coach, Michael Anderson, finished off the best move of the day as play was swept across the field at pace a number of times in a move involving backs and forwards before the home side simply ran out of defenders, hooker Kennedy supplying the final pass for Anderson to finish from 30 metres. Further attacking moves failed to garner any further points in the half as East London squandered some good attacking positions leaving the score at 15-3 to the West Ham side at the half-way point.
The first 30 minutes of the second half brought more of the same. With East London increasingly dominant at the set-piece and with the likes of Masters and Eve consistently first to the break down, Wymondham got more frustrated at their lack of possession and were giving away numerous penalties. In fact, the Wymondham coaches saw fit to substitute one particular repeat offender as his next offence would surely have seen the production of a card.
It was during this period of pressure that East London got their third try, another move involving multiple phases seemed to have broken down as the final pass, made under pressure, failed to find its intended recipient. However, East London support players were queuing up to pounce and Anderson was again next in line to swoop on the loose ball and canter over the line. The bonus point was secured soon afterwards as Gonse and Pilkington combined in midfield to create the space for Killeen to go over on the left to effectively kill off the game.
It was at this point that East London seemed to switch-off, a frantic five minutes saw East London make some basic errors and gift possession to their opponents who scored two well-worked tries as a result. This brought Wymondham back to within 10 points with five minutes still to play but East London managed to regain their composure and keep possession before clearing to touch to bring an end to the afternoon’s proceedings.
This was a good win for East London after a long trip to Norfolk and with their lengthy injury list shortening by one or two names per week they will hope that the second half of their season is more fruitful than the first. They reach that half-way point after their home game against Sudbury next week.