A brave second half peformance wasn’t enough as Great Yarmouth-Broadland suffered their 11 successive defeat in Eastern Counties One North.

In bitterly cold conditions at Cobholm the Raiders completed a double over the bottom side after scoring all their points in the first half.

Although never looking likely to cause an upset the hosts stuck to their task and brought the best out of the Raiders’ defence in the second period.

A much changed visiting side took a while to settle down but after five minutes the home side’s outside half attempted a chip over the top but the ball went straight to centre James Knight who cantered through a gap to score and Michael Mulhall added the extras. Knight was key to the second score when from a scrum in the Raiders half he drew the cover and sent a beautifully timed pass to Harry Dye who in turn found wing Will Minchin who scorched in for try number two, also converted.

Mulhall was next to touch down. Having kicked a penalty to within five metres, the forwards set up a maul and when the ball came to him served an outrageous dummy to go in under the posts and convert.

With most of the play in the Broadland half and the forwards holding their own against what was a much heavier but less mobile home pack it was not long before the bonus try came when a quickly taken tapped penalty came via Knight to Minchin who went the final few yards. Spurred on Broadland worked their way to the try line and eventually their forward weight told and resulted in an unconverted try. Knight whose main role had been to direct his less experienced team mates made the fifth touchdown following a good scrum just inside the 22 and Mulhall’s conversion completed the first half scoring.

Coach Johnny Marsters made the first change at the break, with Aaran Dhesi replacing Knight.

The bitter cold was beginning to take its toll and neither side was able to produce much in the way of running rugby in the second half. Playing with the strong wind the home side camped in the Raiders’ half and were eventually rewarded with a converted try. The Raiders upped their game and pressed hard for the final five minutes but were unable to add to their first half tally.

Great Yarmouth-Broadland play their final league game of 2017 at Norwich Medics on Saturday.