Wymondham kicked off their 40th anniversary season with a narrow home defeat to a well-organised Ipswich YM side.

For much of the game Wymondham looked likely to bag the win, and but a moment of madness by a back rower as the clock ran down, they would probably have edged home.

Wymondham, under new captain, Josh Wright, were fielding a team much changed from last season with a large number of young home- grown players.

Ipswich YM went ahead with a penalty and although James Wyatt, who put in a near-faultless kicking display, slotted two penalties of his own to put Wymondham ahead the visitors replied with a well-worked converted try.

After a period of scrappy play Wright made a trademark surging break through the middle and off-loaded to fly-half Simms who scampered in to score under the posts. Wyatt made short work of the conversion to give Wymondham a 13-10 lead.

After the break Wyatt made no mistake from virtually on the halfway line to make it 16-10 but as the half wore on, Wymondham were coming under severe pressure in the forwards and after a series of five metre scrums Ipswich forced their way over the line. The conversion attempt was narrowly wide to leave the home side ahead 16-15.

As the half drew to a close it was looking increasingly likely that Wymondham would hold on for the win but, with time running out and the ball seemingly trapped on the halfway line, a Wymondham player launched himself over the ruck and conceded a needless penalty.

YM took it quickly, drove upfield and, with excellent inter-play between forwards and backs, scored to the right of the home posts.

The conversion was missed and the referee immediately blew for full-time to leave Ipswich YM the victors by 20 points to 16.

The losing bonus point was scant consolation to Wymondham but, nevertheless, the coaches will draw some positives from this performance. The youngsters coming into the side from the youth system all acquitted themselves well and the whole team continued to put in maximum effort until the final whistle.