London 2 North Ipswich 19 Sudbury 53 Sudbury picked themselves up from last week’s hiccup and put on another good display of running rugby at Ipswich, writes Don Reekie.
The West Suffolk side kicked off in cold but bright conditions and with the first move of the game Ipswich were caught offside on their own 22 and Sam Rust made no mistake with the kick.
Sudbury maintained the pressure and within four minutes had their first try from a scrum in the home half followed by quick hands through the backs to find Henry Cowling lurking on the wing to score. Rust was again successful with the kick.
A good run started by Jonny Taylor set the backs free again for Fraser Beckett to cross the stripe and Ipswich had not been in the Sudbury half for more than a minute during the game.
Austin Beckett was next on the sheet when he spotted a gap in the defence early and made a bee-line for the line – with just 15 minutes on the clock.
Ipswich had to work hard for every metre gained as their big boys tried to batter their way through and they eventually secured a scrum in the Sudbury 22. Four phases of play got them the try as they finally put it out wide and converted.
Sudbury scrummaging held up well against the bigger pack and two scrums on the Ipswich five gave Taylor the bonus point try as Sudbury again went wide from the set piece.
Then a kick for touch gave Ipswich a penalty line-out deep in the Sudbury 22 and again after recycling the ball four times the forwards scored to make it 27-12 at the break.
With two men down after the break Sudbury conceded a try from close range. But from the restart Sudbury retained possession and a superbly weighted cross field kick from Tom Summers put Shaun Smith clear to score.
Then from a line-out in home territory Sudbury put the ball out to Fraser Beckett who ran round behind the posts, brother Austin then did the same from a five metre scrum to put the game out of reach for Ipswich with ten minutes left.
With minutes left Smith got his second try, again from a line-out on the left. Summers had taken over kicking duties and converted to end a well-contested game.
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