VIGO were grateful to fly half Dan Norton when he scored all 16 of their points against an Erith side in desperate need of points at the foot of the table.

But in all honesty, they were probably unfortunate to win this match, which was on the whole poorly played and poorly refereed.

In fact, if Erith had kept their heads instead of protesting at every decision which didn’t go their way, then they may well have beaten a Vigo side struggling to find their rhythm.

Norton began his personal points monopoly with a penalty after 15 minutes, but Erith hit back immediately when the outstanding player on the park, Phil Sewell, picked up from the base of a drum and drove through the Vigo defence to score.

His brother, Alex, was also making some thunderous charges of his own as Erith drove at the Villagers in a pretty shapeless game.

Norton popped over another penalty for a narrow half-time lead, an opening period notable for Erith’s poor handling and discipline.

Vigo, whose pack were dominant at the scrum and lineouts, could not put together a coherent backs move, too often emulating the England side with some aimless kicking.

Norton was exempt of this charge with some powerful relieving kicks downfield after a succession of Erith penalties, and was soon on the scoring board with another penalty after 15 minutes of the second half.

Tom Amzaleg replied with a penalty for the home side, before Norton’s quick thinking tap-and-go saw him slide over the line while the Erith defence were still standing around protesting at a perceived injustice.

Norton completed his points haul with the simple conversion.

Erith fought back hard, playing some decent rugby but Vigo just about held on in the face of a furious onslaught.

The introduction of veteran centre Carl Hayward coincided with a purple passage of threes play for Vigo, as they suddenly surprised everyone with a couple of electric breaks.

But then, being Vigo, they almost threw it all away in the final stages.

Reduced to 14 men after a yellow card, Vigo were stretched to the limit and broke with Alex Sewell crashing over to reduce the arrears.

Amzaleg’s conversion set up a frantic last few minutes but Vigo held on for an admittedly fortunate win.