Martin leads the way with hat-trick as Thetford bounce back

The visitors exerted early pressure with the line-out working well and centre Tom Gelder and full back Will Martin put in some aggressive runs.

Josh Clark opened the scoring as the forward found Gelder who chipped over the defence, regathered and passed to Clark who ran to the line. More pressure from Thetford saw Plummer get sacked at the back of a scrum by the impressive Mark Laws and Thetford’s backs used rapid hands out to wing Kristopher Minter, winning a penalty and Martin took the points.

Woodbridge fought for more possession and peppered the Thetford 22, Matt Bowman linking with Hart on one promising dart, but the defence held firm and the half ended with Thetford threatening the home try line and leading 10-0.

On resumption the visitors attacked on the right wing through Minter and then Gelder was at it again, jinking and sidestepping down centre-field. Hart came to the rescue with an excellent touch as things went aerial and back Angus Clogg then kicked long for his talented opposite number Martin to recover it, kick on and win the footrace to touch down on the bobbling ball.

Woodbridge doggedly kept up the challenge. Bowman took over the charge and captain Tom Stokes worked hard on the ground to get the ball for Hart to battle over and lift the crowd as he scored between the posts.

Thetford’s defensive line speed pushed the Warriors into their own goal area where a push-over scrum saw the ubiquitous Martin in the No 8 position score. Woodbridge had a couple of attacks, Clogg running clearances back with Simon Ward, Stokes and Cook in support and established a few attacking line-outs. But there was an air of inevitability when Martin received the ball on the 10m line and dodged and swerved his way to a hat-trick to steer Thetford, who host Wisbech on Saturday, to another bonus point win on the road.

Thetford’s Heathens beat Holt III 108-12 and cemented themselves at the top of their league.