Mersea Island defeat Wisbech in opening clash of new season

The new Counties 2 Eastern Counties season opened with a lively clash on the Essex coast as Mersea Island powered to a 29-7 win over Wisbech on Saturday.

From the opening whistle, Mersea looked determined to make home advantage count.

A bad injury to Wisbech's Ethan Garford, who left the field with a torn Patella halfway through the first half, proved costly for the visitors.

The first points were scored ten minutes before the break and the Wisbech reply came in the latter stages of the match.

Wisbech worked its way deep into the Mersea 22-metre area.

For the first time in the match, the Men in Red managed to put together multiple attacking phases where they camped on the Mersea try line.

Following several strong pick-and-go phases, evenly broke down the stubborn Mersea defence, allowing hooker Nathaniel Humphreys to go over from close range for a well-deserved consolation try converted by Jack Malkin.

The Bowsers Wisbech man of the match went to Hal Whyatt, who stood out with his tireless work rate both in attack and especially in defence.

Director of rugby Leonard Veenendaal said: “Our travelling arrangements let us down, we arrived too late for a proper warm-up and sufficient time to shake off the journey and it showed.

"We will have to travel better if we want to get the most out of this season.

"We played some good rugby in patches, but looked lethargic at times and lacked team cohesion. It was a frustrating performance from us and we were just not good enough on the day.”