Ipswich 32 Sudbury 12

Ipswich showered five tries on local rivals Sudbury to climb up to fourth place in London Division Three North East.

Bottom-equal Sudbury scored twice but were no threat to Ipswich in a one-sided match.

Man-of-the-match Cristoffel Blom was the driving force in the forwards, the South African flanker outstanding around the pitch and powerful at the breakdown.

Scrumhalf Ollie Johnson found his rhythm behind a settled forward pack and enabled the backline to take four tries, with hooker Martin Holland running in the other from 15 metres out.

Jan Van Tonder touched down after just five minutes when he looped around fellow South African Tertius Terblanche to score near the posts. Christian Hadwen converted to give Ipswich a 7-0 lead.

Sudbury came back strongly to with Harwood crossing and Philips converting to bring the score even.

Holland took Ipswich ahead with a surge over the line following the forwards and backs combining to put the visitors’ defence in disarray and Hadwen bumped the score up to 14-7.

Hadwen took a penalty kick to give Ipswich a 17-7 lead at the turnaround.

Four minutes into the second half Hadwen was involved again as he sidestepped through the Sudbury backline to dive over in the corner. Sudbury replied with a massive driving maul which saw Sparks driven over to give Sudbury a glimmer of hope at 22-12 down.

Quarter of an hour later Ipswich brought on Nick Rush and the backs started making light of the opposition, with two more tries to Alistair Leighton-Scott and fullback Sam Keeble-Taylor respectively.

Ipswich’s fitness was the telling difference as they controlled the final quarter with ease and coach Jeff Searle was pleased his hard work on fitness at training was bringing results.

“We’ve moved on from the disappointment of the Bury defeat and two important wins have catapulted us into contention for the league title,” the flanker said after the match. “Our fitness work in training is giving us that extra yard in the final quarter and the results are going our way again.”

Ipswich play Hadleigh in the Suffolk Cup this weekend before travelling to Rochford on December 3 for their next league match.

ub when he smoothly dummied past the desperate defence to score near the posts, with Broughton’s third conversion giving Ipswich a satisfying 24-0 cushion.

With eight minutes to go Hadwen put the result beyond any doubt when he started and finished a fluid movement from the home 22 to score under the sticks. Broughton took the two points to take the score to 31-0 but the visitors tried to spoil the party with a late try out wide, the game finishing 31-5.

The match also saw the return of flanker Nick Rush, who came off the bench to influence an already-strong pack. Coach Jeff Searle and new South African flanker Cristoffel Blom rampaged through the breakdowns with Tom Aylott and Ben Louisson making strong cases for their inclusion in a tightly-contested playing XV.

Ipswich lie 6th in London League Three North East with a game in hand but are only four points behind leaders Eton Manor, and will head to bottom-placed Bury St Edmunds this Saturday hoping to improve on their recent away form.

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