Wymondham 8 Holt 21

After their win at Norwich last week, Wymondham returned to earth with a bump as, in front of a bumper home crowd of around 400 spectators, table toppers Holt recorded what was, in the end, a fairly routine victory.

The first 10 minutes were decidedly scrappy as both sides tested their opposition and this period was, despite the near-perfect conditions, littered with handling errors as the players struggled to maintain some continuity of possession.

Tim Allen opened the scoring for Holt with a try under the posts which was converted by ex-Wymondham youth player, Ian Young.

With half an hour gone and 7-0 behind, Wymondham found themselves conceding a series of penalties in midfield and eventually they were caught offside within Young's kicking range and he duly stretched the Holt lead to 10 points.

As the half-time break approached, the Red and Blacks at last began to fire and won a series of penalties in the Holt 'red zone' as the away side were forced to kill the ball to prevent a score. Eventually, the referee ran out of patience and sent the Holt scrum-half to the sinbin, presenting Wilson with a relatively simple kick to make it 10-3 to Holt at the break.

On the hour mark, and after one failed attempt, Young slotted another kick to stretch the Holt lead to 13-3.

The score seemed to sting Wymondham into action and there followed an excellent period of play with the home side playing the patterns the coaches have been working on all season. Flying winger, Alex Brugger picked up a pass on the Holt 22-metre line and made the most of his opportunity to burst through the Holt defence and ground the ball over the line. Wilson was unable to add the extra points so, with 15 minutes left, Wymondham had narrowed the gap to five points.

At this point, the home side must have felt that they could take something from the match but, again, indiscipline let down the players as one of the backs strayed offside in midfield and presented Young with yet another penalty from which he made no mistake.

Holt then showed why they are top of the table with a stunning try. They moved the ball quickly across the field with backs and forwards combining well to create a two-man overlap which left the Holt left winger, Stuart Robson, the easiest of tasks to complete the scoring.

By John Mackay