Norwich's difficult start to the season continued as they suffered their third defeat in a row, this time to a competitive Stowmarket outfit.

The home side started brightly enough but were penalised for pulling down the maul after a line-out and Stowmarket opted for a scrum from which their No 8 picked up and went round the blindside to score.

With the conversion landed Norwich reacted positively and patiently worked through numerous phases, ending with Conan Hoey going over to the right of the posts. The kick was landed to level the scores.

Norwich worked a nice move from the restart and made good ground, only for a careless offload to end up in Stowmarket hands from which they scored in the left corner.

Stowmarket extended their lead when a poor Norwich pass went to ground and having gathered it, they kicked over the top and won a foot race to touch down.

Norwich regained their composure and tried to maul the ball over the line but Stowmarket resisted. The hosts then switched the point of contact from one side to the other and Laurence Austin went over in the corner, with the kick missed.

Austin scored again shortly afterwards in similar circumstances, levelling the scores, which was probably a fair reflection of the half.

The fact that Norwich only added to their score after the break with the last play of the game, and with a strong breeze in their favour, will be of concern to the players and coaches alike, particularly as they enjoyed a significant amount of possession and territory. But they lacked the composure to convert it into points as errors stung them and Stowmarket repeatedly hit them on the counter-attack.

The next Stowmarket score came from such a turn-over ball followed by some poor tackling, allowing the left winger to score under the post. The visitors added a penalty to their tally and then scored wide out on the right from the five metre scrum. A similar pattern was witnessed for their final try when they picked up loose ball in their own half and scored a breakaway try.

The hosts secured a four-try bonus point with the last play of the game when Chris Parrott found space to round the defence to score between the posts. Norwich just need a few things to click in order for them to turn their possession and territory into points in what is sure to be a tight league.