Dereham 16, Broadland-Great Yarmouth 0DEREHAM continued their improved form with a valuable league win over old rivals.Head coach Frank Affleck has been working the squad hard in training to stiffen the defence and develop patterns of play to start turning pressure into points.

Dereham 16, Broadland-Great Yarmouth 0

DEREHAM continued their improved form with a valuable league win over old rivals.

Head coach Frank Affleck has been working the squad hard in training to stiffen the defence and develop patterns of play to start turning pressure into points. The introduction of an extra Monday fitness session at Dereham Leisure Centre led by Roy Head has improved stamina, which was also evident as they kept a clean sheet for the first time in the league this season.

Broadland brought a big pack to Moorgate intending to dominate the set piece. They made things difficult for Dereham at the start by wheeling the scrum on Dereham's put-in to gain the re-set in their favour. But Canning and Brown got stronger and the improving front row put increasing pressure on the opposition and steadied their own ball.

This gave Dereham the platform they needed to repeatedly break from the base of the scrum through Wombat and Fish, drawing in the Broadland back row and making room outside.

Drewery, back at fly-half following a knee injury, created a number of chances for the new centres combination of Lester and Tribe.

Drewery opened the scoring after five minutes after some strong rucking from Dereham's pack drew a penalty.

There were promising breaks from Barry Rolfe and Dan Ponder before the score was stretched by possibly the best try seen at Moorgate this season.

Malcolmson took the ball cleanly at the line-out and in a rehearsed move Head peeled from the back of the line to give Fish extra space. The back line moved the ball cleanly to Lake on the left wing in just enough space to dive over in the corner for his second try at the club.

At half-time Dereham's captain Scott Malcolmson reminded the team of recent narrow defeats suffered as the result of lapses in concentration. The team responded well and Brooks caught the restart and launched straight back into Broadland. The visitors upped their game but Dereham's defence held firm.

Wombat and Ponder were replaced by Dan Johnson and Tom Walton and Dereham continued to exert pressure. Head and Edwards set up a driving maul from the base of a line out before Walton peeled free and Lake pounced on the ball as the move crossed the line for his second of the day.

Broadland started to show the pressure as they lost their hooker to a yellow card, and Drewery slotted his second penalty to put the game safe at 16-0.

On Saturday the first team play Lakenham Hewett in the first round of the Norfolk Junior Cup.

Norfolk played Suffolk at U16 level on Sunday and four Dereham Barbarians represented their county in a keenly fought and entertaining match played at Southwold which finished 15-15.

The Dereham contingent consisted of Adam Wright, Marcus Evans, Duncan Jamieson and Chris Bessent.

All boys played a full part in the game and demonstrated the strength of youth rugby in Dereham. They return to Barbarian duty to play Beccles away.