Ipswich 1st XV Lose to Sudbury 19 - 53

Sudbury consolidated their 3rd place in London 2 NE with a comfortable win 53-19 over Ipswich, where their pace and accuracy with ball in hand proved the telling differential in a hard fought match away at Humber Doucy Lane. This was a second league loss for Ipswich over their Suffolk rivals but to their credit they fought hard throughout.

Sudbury had a dream start posting a Sam Rust penalty within a minute and with two tries from Henry Cowling and Frazer Beckett they were 17-0 up with only 6 minutes played. In the first quarter the Sudbury backline were playing with real pace and confidence. Austin Beckett scored a third try on the quarter hour to push the unanswered score on to 0-22 to Sudbury. Finally, Ipswich started to take the ball forward through a series of drives and were rewarded with a Chris Blom try on 20 minutes, converted by Corey Button. It wasn’t long before Sudbury scored again through Jonny Taylor after some virtuoso centre play. Ipswich drove back again gaining a great attacking lineout and drove through with Mikey Graham scoring a fine, unconverted try with 8 minutes of the half to play. Ipswich stabilised the game for the remaining minutes of the half but failed to close the gap which remained at 12-27 at half-time.

From the second half kick-off Ipswich attacked strongly and Mikey Graham was just held up before Gwynn Church scored Ipswich’s third try and when that was converted Ipswich were within touching distance 19-27. Sudbury attacked immediately from the kick-off and kicked wide right into space, the ball sat up nicely for winger Shaun Smith to collect and sprint clear for a great try under the posts the conversion was straightforward, and Sudbury moved their score on again. Sudbury’s backs scored again when winger Shaun Smith stretched the Ipswich defence wide right before finding Frazer Beckett inside with a very clever move to post another easily converted try. Ipswich to their credit drove back again deep into and could easily have scored again as they strove for a fourth bonus point try, but on a cold day, that was not to be as handling errors relieved pressure for Sudbury. Sudbury were to score two clever breakaways at the end as pacey backs Austin Beckett and Shaun Smith scored again to complete the score Ipswich 19 Sudbury 53.