It was a full weekend of fixtures for Dereham Rugby Club with the first XV recording their first league victory of the year and the Barbarians running out convincing victors at Watton.

It was a full weekend of fixtures for Dereham Rugby Club with the first XV recording their first league victory of the year and the Barbarians running out convincing victors at Watton.

Dereham 25, Hadleigh 12

With the return of Brookes at lock and Lester on the wing, Dereham fielded a full-strength squad. Dereham exerted good early pressure on the Hadleigh backs with some big tackles from Lester and Rolfe. Drew calmly put the first three points on the score card.

Drew was also instrumental in the first try as the stand off put in a cross-kick which was misjudged by the visiting winger, but not by the advancing Dan Ponder, who crossed for his well-deserved first ever try for the club.

The strong Dereham pack soon began to dominate and turn over set pieces. From a Hadleigh scrum the stronger Dereham forwards turned over the ball and Fish at scrum-half took the ball on to beat the stand off and score.

Second half Dereham started to bash the ball through the forwards. Man of the Match Canning made great ground and kept breaking holes in the Hadleigh defence. After two phases, the ball was spun wide for Aaron Tribe to score his first. Tribe got his second after a five-metre scrum was won, the overlap was spotted and he cut back inside his opposite centre to score.

Hadleigh mustered a late comeback and scored two well-worked tries.

Dereham's captain Scott Malcolmson said: “I'm tremendously pleased with today's win. Some of the stuff we've been working hard on is beginning to come good.”

Dereham Barbarians 53, Watton 0

The more experienced and well-drilled Barbarians ran out comfortable victors.

An early injury to Rumbles saw the Dereham backs shuffle and Affleck move into stand off. Bean persistently won good balls in the loose and Spencer was made strong runs from No 8. The Barbarian backs maintained their open, flowing style regardless of the wet conditions.

The pick of the tries was crafted by Affleck, who placed a cross-kick straight into the hands of the prop Josh Stuart, who cheekily popped up on the wing to score. Edwards contributed to the score card from inside centre with a hat-trick of tries, the pick of which was a break from the halfway line. Further tries from Marcus Evans, Chris Bessent, Brendan Warren and Jasper Spencer sealed a comprehensive performance.

The Barbarians have a week of training next week before facing a much improved Wymondham side at home.