A game of two halves

Nevertheless, 5 unanswered tries was a great riposte to our meet earlier in the season!

The usual cold day and stiff bone-chilling breeze welcomed Sudbury - so home advantaged!

From the outset our lads looked dominate. The forwards were running straight with good support and less than 5 minutes in to the game after a few phases the ball came out to Guy who rode a tackle managing to get the ball away to Sam C who showed their winger his heels to run in a great team try. Tom K expertly used the wind to carry his conversion from out wide.

Southwold continued to dominate possession and kept Sudbury well in their own half and after another 10 minutes we had a lineout 7m out. A well crafted rolling maul saw a space open up for Sonnie who gratefully bundled over.

We didn't let up and our pick-and-go was continuing to challenge the Sudbury defence and Tom C kept the momentum going. A few minutes before the end of the half it looked as though our forwards would prevail again but it was a sneaky grubber over the try line from Louie which saw Niall scamper through to dip down just before it went dead.

Half time score 17-0

Sudbury came out much stronger in the second half and immediately put the pressure on in our 22. We managed to break out and probably unwise box kick from the centre of the pitch in to the wind fell kindly for us and, with some great interplay and offloads, Will B ran in a strong try against the flow.

From then on it was defence, defence, defence. On the whole our line-speed was well managed forcing errors in their backs and our forwards remained strong with some great hits. However our discipline began to slip as we got on the wrong side of thereof and at one point we had two lads on the naughty stool and still managed to keep Sudbury out - just. All credit to every player for doing their defensive duty.

Then just as a Sudbury try looked inevitable, we scored the best try of the match. A well won lineout in our half on the left saw Louie run over in the right hand corner after some excellent passing and another strong run from our man Guy Blade. Our two tries were probably our only two forays in to their half throughout the second period!

Despite the fifth try Sudbury certainly weren't finished and they continued to attack our lines. The game actually ended with the ball touched down in our deadball area by Denzil after a chip through preserving a well deserved clean sheet.

A really good effort and solid performance throughout after a few recent disappointments.