Walden seal first Win in London 1N

Life in London 1N started with a game against fellow promoted club Sudbury who last year finished second to L2NE champions Walden.
The conditions were good at the start of the game with a strong breeze blowing across the ground. Much of the team that finished on such a high last year started for Walden.
The visitors kicked off and put pressure on the home team who played their way out of their own 22 and after a couple of phases scrum half Paul Marshall kicked long and the ball went deep into the visitors half. A great chase put pressure on the Sudbury back three and as they tried to pass the ball out of defence and No. 8 Brad Baker reached up to pluck the ball out of the air to run in under the posts after only 2 minutes. Fullback Tom Price converted to put Walden ahead by 7 points.
After this the opening exchanges were predictably tight as both teams eased their way into the game with the visitors just edging it in the set pieces.
Sudbury found their way back into the game as they used their backs and forwards to good affect to create the space for a well worked try to level the scores at 7 each.
But gradually the Walden pack were finding their feet and started pushing the visitors back in the scrums and in the second quarter Walden created 3 good chances but the final pass was either dropped or did not quite go to hand and there was no further score for the rest of the half.
At half time the weather changed and heavy rain set in and the ball became slippery, some good kicking by fly half Tom Hughes pinned the visitors deep into their 22 and a mistake saw Walden regain the ball and nearly go over the try line only to be held up. But from the resulting 5 metre scrum Walden's dominance showed as they pushed the visitors towards the line with Brad Baker controlling the ball he dotted it down as they crossed the try line. Tom Price kicked a difficult conversion and Walden regained the lead, 14 -7 after 46 mins.
Walden really dominated most of the second half as Sudbury facing the elements found it difficult to get out of their half. They once again looked close to scoring as a good break by the backs looked like scoring only to be stopped by some last ditch tackling and a couple of penalties were given away. However Walden could not quite work they way over the try line as the visitors desperately held them out. But with 15 mins to go Sudbury gave another penalty away 30 metres out and Tom Price stepped up and kicked it through the posts to give Walden a 10 point cushion. Sudbury tried running the ball out of defence at every opportunity and did make some good ground on a couple of occasions but they never threatened the try line and Walden stayed cool under pressure. With the last play of the game they won the line out and calmly kicked the ball out to win their first game in this league.
A good win which will give the team some great impetus to take into training and next weeks game at Chelmsford.