Fine weather and a small crowd gathered at Dereham road for this friendly fixture against a newly formed Mildenhall RFC.

From the kick off the visitors showed no respect for Watton as they dominated in broken play, strong driving runs from the pack brought the play up to the goal line, a strong Watton defence prevented the touch down; no such luck from the scrummage as the visitors pick and drive proved unstoppable 0 – 5 unconverted.

Watton again under the cosh in midfield turned over possession to give first time ball to the backs; a speculative kick through saw Henno Vanverden on the wing out paced the defence to collect and score under the posts. Turnbull converting 7 – 5.

Mildenhall responded immediately with more bullish forward attacking play, close support and powerful running again saw the line crossed for an unconverted score 7 – 10.

Watton began making in roads into Mildenhall territory from the boot of Turnbull, a Watton scrum 20 metres out was taken against the head, quick thinking from Mildenhall giving the blind side winger plenty of room to run in for another unconverted score 7 – 15.

With the last play of the half Watton earned a scrum 5 metres out, Stone at 10 crashed to within a metre as quick support from back row Barre powered over for the score, the conversion making the half time score 14 – 15.
The second half began with a bang from the Watton pack, power and passion left Mildenhall with no response to this explosive start, with the visitors in disarray simple recycled ball and crisp handling giving Smith a stroll over score in the corner, unconverted for a 19 – 15 lead.

The home side continued to dominate play, camped in the visitors half. Showing excellent technical skills, controlling possession in stark contrast from the first forty. Mildenhall again struggled to cope giving away penalty after penalty; this culminated in a quick tap from Turnbull who broke the line & released front row Evans to drive over . Turnbull made no mistake stretching the lead to 26 – 15.

Mildenhall battled up to the final whistle but remained on the back foot due to a solid display from the Watton back row of George, Terblanche & Barre who hounded the visitors to the end.