Tonbridge Juddians 59 North Walsham 12: National League 2 East match report

By Adam Hookway

Tonbridge Juddians began 2024 in style with a 59-12 National League 2 East win over bottom-of-the-table North Walsham.

Heavy flooding caused TJs to switch the game to the Vizards pitch at the Judd School and they ran in plenty of tries on the 3G surface, Matt Walsh finding a gaping hole to scamper through and get the ball rolling after five minutes with Tom White converting.

A few minutes later TJs found Tommy Nicoll supporting on the right and he dotted down, White converting from the touchline, and after 14 minutes it was 21-0 - Ryan Munnelly powering over from a few phases with White again adding the extras.

The visitors reduced the arrears by seven when TJs kicked long after the restart but only found Walsham’s left-winger who sauntered through the home defence without a hand on him, but Judds replied with a burst of tries.

The combination of slick and wide passing and good running lines enabled Luke Talbot to finish off a fine move from the centre, Howard Packman did the same from the left wing and then Duncan Tout found the straightest and shortest of lines to the whitewash.

The scoreboard kept ticking in TJs’ favour as Alex Reid also powered over and with White converting one of the tries and Sam Evans two more, Tonbridge swapped ends 47-7 ahead.

The second half started with an unconverted try for the strugglers after finding territory before pressurising TJs into a series of infringements, but Talbot restored the 40-point lead after 57 minutes after the ball had been spread left, right and then left again.

That was the end of the scoring until the final minute when Jack Whitmarsh rumbled over and Evans added the extras.

TJs, in sixth, visit 11th-placed Guernsey this weekend.