Enfield Ignatians rescued a late losing bonus point but otherwise had little to celebrate after beginning 2015 with a 26-19 home defeat by Norwich in London Two North East on Saturday.

The Blue and Golds scored a well-crafted try after just two minutes when scrum-half Charlie Shorten, capitalising on turnover ball, played in right wing Ryan Browne who scorched in from 60 metres.

Otherwise Norwich, with the wind at their backs, had much the better off the first-half and the far more fluent East Anglian side scored two tries via Jonny Wheater and Martin Cullum to claim a deserved 14-5 half-time lead.

Despite having conditions in their favour in the second half, the Ignatians' fightback never materialised and two quality tries from the Norwich backrowers, Stuart Cameron and Laurence Austin, extended the Norwich lead to an unassailable 26-5.

In a game in which each side had player yellow carded for side entry, Ignatians rallied in the last five minutes to claim a brace of consolation tries from centre Jake Bates, both of which were converted by Jordan Wilson, but it was too little too late.

Despite rescuing something from the game, head coach Emile Hertz was disappointed by the result.He said: "We never really got going and it all felt terribly flat until the 78th minute when we scored two late tries to give the score some respectability.

"We had planned to put Norwich under pressure but we could never get clean ball. Our kicking game was poor and, at times, we got rucked off the ball. We waited until it was too late to start playing."

Ignatians are away to Campion in the league on Saturday.

The seconds lost 34-21 to Haberdashers Seconds in the Herts-Middlesex Merit Table One. The visitors scored three tries via Harry Jenner, Seyi Adeosun and captain Sean Coyne. All three were converted by Paul Duke.

There was also defeat for the Under-16s, who suffered a 24-5 defeat to a very well-drilled Hitchin side in Herts-Middlesex Division Two. The home side, out-gunned for long periods, scored a consolation try via Cairo Sango.

Meanwhile, the Under-14s lost an away friendly against Saracens B 28-10 and the Under-10s, involved in triangular tournament with Old Verulamians and Old Grammarians, won both games 7-4 and 11-1.