Ipswich began the game for the first time in 60 matches without captain Chris Blom, who instead eagerly patrolled the touchline.

He didn’t like what he saw and by 10 minutes his team were down by six points having conceded two penalties.

They redressed the deficit with a try by Simon Uzokwe duly converted by Corne Els. Slowly but surely Ipswich began to take control but Norwich replied with a penalty.

Simon Uzokwe then came off injured, so coach Johnny Breedt replaced one force of human nature with another and released Blom.

Secondly and to gasps of amazement from the away supporters Mike Graham was also injured and had to come off, leaving something of a hole in the forwards, a hole exacerbated by the sin-binning of Craig Wilson for entering from the side.

By this time the score had increased to 19-9 to Ipswich, thanks to tries from Blom and Tim Hopkins.

Norwich hauled themselves back into the game in the second half, and Ipswich were now bereft of a bench and it showed.

With ten minutes to go the home side had scored two tries and a penalty to not only reduce the difference but take a 24-22 lead.

One thing that they couldn’t extinguish was the league leaders’ resolve though and Ipswich scored an unconverted try through Sheldon Reynecke.

A nail-biting few minutes ensued, with the visitors holding on to a three point lead at the whistle.

Next week, Ipswich travel to second-placed Saffron Walden in the key game of the season for both.