GOOD PERFORMACE

HEADS HELD HIGH

Sudbury travelled to East London to third placed Chingford on Saturday and despite a spirited performance lost a close game.
Sudbury kicked off with the chill breeze and immediately took play into the Chingford half and within three minutes was awarded a penalty for offside. Chris Lewis made sure of the kick to give Sudbury a three point lead; the home side had the best of the early set pieces and after ten minutes, scored, after a scrum and lineout in the twenty two and then drove over from close range. Sudbury put themselves under pressure from the restart by not kicking the required ten metres and from the resulting scrum a skilful move passing the ball wide, and then back across the park, re-cycling the ball to stretch the Sudbury defence to score again. Both sides were being punished by referee for straying offside but were playing some attractive rugby in the heavy conditions, Chingford were having the best of the play with some crisp passing and sharper tackling but Sudbury were still competing well. Chingford added a third try with a good run down the wing and got their only conversion of the day just before half time.
The second half saw no slowing of the pace of the game and Chingford secured the bonus point after seven minutes of play with another well worked move in the cold and muddy conditions, Sudbury kept plugging away but the home side retained the edge until the last quarter of the game when Johnny Taylor broke through with a good break to score wide on the left. The last ten minutes both teams picked up the pace but the game was littered with knock ons and offside decisions and although Sudbury retained field position they were unable to improve their points tally.
Once again a good determined effort but unfortunately not a win.