London 2 North Sudbury 63 Woodford 7 Sudbury continued their march to the playoffs with another fine win, writes Don Reekie.

It was the fitness of the Sudbury team that sealed the win as they played the whole eighty minutes as though they had just kicked off. Woodford played some good rugby right till the end but were unable to match the home side for pace and agility.

Sudbury kicked off in front of an unusually sparse crowd and as usual attacked with the first play of the game, charged down a Woodford kick and Sam Rust ran on to the loose ball, picked up cleanly and crossed the paintwork after one and a half minutes of play.

A scrum against a heavier pack was then defended well and the Sudbury backs broke to put Jonny Taylor clear for the second try. Fraser Beckett broke from the back of a scrum on the 22 to score and the bonus point try came from a scrum on the Woodford ten metre line with quick hands to Shaun Smith on the wing.

Matt Johnston scored the first of his three tries when he ran the length of the pitch, just before half-time, and the visitors had yet to show any signs that they might trouble the scorer.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first with Smith making a good break with Jack Dachtler in support to finish the move with the first play of the half.

Taylor scored from a backs move, and Johnston got his second from a scrum.

Sudbury used all their replacements to give them some game time as man of the match, Johnston, got his hat-trick.

Henry Cowling took the points past fifty and Rust scored the final points for Sudbury.

There was a sting in the tail when Woodford secured a penalty line-out ten out and for the last two minutes threw everything at the Blues.

Now in overtime Sudbury had to defend their line from the most determined attack of the whole match and eventually Woodford found the gap underneath the posts, preventing the whitewash.