Norwich 17, Campion 13: Norwich were made to work very hard for the win on an afternoon when they were not at their best.

Playing with what should have been a 20 point wind in the first half the hosts insisted on trying to move the ball when the obvious tactic should have been to kick for the corners and then play from there.This is exactly what Campion did in the second half and it very nearly cost Norwich the game.

Norwich started badly, with several tackles being missed, and conceded an early penalty which fly-half Paul Larner converted.

This seemed to spur Norwich into action and a poor kick out of defence was fielded near the visitors' 22. The ball was spread wide to centre Dan Coltman who spotted the gap and went over near the posts. Rob Micklethwaite, playing at fly-half, kicked the simple conversion to put Norwich in the lead.

Instead of grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck when it was there for the taking Norwich gave the impression of thinking that as long as they went through the motions all would be well. The opposition had other ideas and despite a further Micklethwaite penalty increasing Norwich's lead Campion were next on the scoresheet when No 8 Canny was allowed to stroll over from a line-out just inside the Norwich 22 and Larner added the difficult conversion to give Campion the lead they deserved at half-time.

There looked to be only one winner as the second half progressed with Larner pinning Norwich inside their own half with some good kicking out of hand. However it is to Norwich's great credit that they defended superbly and stuck to the task in hand. They did not help themselves when every time they put phases of play together they gave away a penalty, thus keeping Campion in the game. Norwich only wrapped the game up in injury time when Ross Adnitt crashed over half way out and Josh Ives added the conversion.

Norwich will see this as a great escape but will take comfort from winning when not at their best.