Wisbech 12 March Bears 21: Eastern Counties 2 match report as Bears take derby honours

March produced an upset to win the Eastern Counties 2 derby 21-12 at Wisbech on Saturday.

Both teams had players missing but it didn’t slow down the pace of the derby. The match was played at a fierce speed throughout which made for a thrilling encounter for the large crowd.

March went ahead after five minutes with an excellent pressure try and a fine line run by John Dibb saw him go through under the posts, Sam Howat’s conversion was merely a formality.

The Wisbech pack had a large advantage in weight and dominated the set-piece scrum and the mauls but could not capitalise on this domination. However, March looked sharp on the break and thanks to some good tackling were prevented from scoring again.

In the 30th minute, Wisbech saw one of their scrum penalised and yellow carded. Within two minutes, George Paul scored a second try for March with an individual break which saw him touch down near the corner post for an unconverted score.

Even with a man down, Wisbech pressurised March in the last few minutes of the half and eventually they gained a penalty try for repeat offences on the try line by the Bears to reduce the arrears at the break to 12-7.

The second half started like the main part of the first half with some fierce scrummaging and tackling by both sides but in the 60th minute an offside penalty was awarded to March, which was belted over the posts by Howat.

Four minutes later another penalty offence was awarded by the referee, midway between the 22 metres and halfway line but this did not daunt Howat who powered his penalty over as well to make it 18-7.

The game was starting to run away from Wisbech, not helped by their indiscipline in the loose.

With five minutes left, Wisbech at last capitalised on their weight advantage and with several crash ball attempts eventually went over towards the corner for an unconverted try.

But the Bears again pressurised Wisbech in their 22 and they gave away a penalty for failing to roll away. Howat showed no nerves to put over the penalty and give March a first league win of the season, and a historic victory at their rivals.

Wisbech director of rugby Leonard Veenendaal said: “All credit to March, they wanted it more and they deserved their win. It was a frustrating performance from us and we were just not good enough on the day.”

Wisbech travel to Bedford this Saturday while March host Fakenham.