Ipswich were committed and controlled in defence and attack to make it two games from two at Mersea RFC with convincing wins over Hadleigh and hosts Mersea. With 13 tries scored and some exceptional kicking from Sam Donnelly, with only 2 conversions going astray, the aggregate score on the day was 87 for with clean sheets in both matches. Ipswich are now 4 wins from 4 with no scores conceded yet in the County Cup, an impressive record.

First up Ipswich faced Hadleigh who were already reeling from a heavy defeat at the hands of Mersea in their first match. Nonetheless they were committed even with a strong wind in their faces, but Ipswich were clinical in scoring 8 emphatic tries from with strong attacking rugby across the full width of the field: Dantay Ward opened the scoring after only 2 minutes, Adam Rudolph (4 minutes), Josh Ball (6) Jake Hoskings (9), Dantay Ward again (11), Sam Donnelly (15), and Eli Govindsamy scored twice on 16 and 18 minutes to complete the scoring in the first half. With 7 out of 8 converted the game was won 54-0 after one half of rugby.

Mersea were a much stronger set of opponents and Ipswich had to be very committed to contain them. Ipswich started with the strong wind at their backs again and attacked speedily and efficiently to release Sam Donnelly to score the first after a minute. That score undoubtedly settled nerves and Ipswich worked hard to limit opportunities for Mersea’s strong runners denying them possession through effective work at the rucks and closing space quickly to tackle some very strong runners before they built up pace. Ipswich were able to pass wide and fluently to release Jake Hoskings to score a second try on 9 minutes and a third on 13 minutes, with 2 out of three tries converted including a marvellous touchline effort Ipswich were 19-0 up at half-time.

But the game was far from over as Mersea had strong wind advantage as they turned round. Ipswich had to defend well for the first 5-6 minutes as Mersea retained possession and attacked strongly through a number of runners. To their credit the Ipswich defence held firm with all players doing their jobs to halt promising attacks. Mersea came close before Ipswich hacked the ball through and Sam Donnelly showed some superb footballing skills to kick the ball forward from within his own 22 metres to between the posts to score at the far end. In a grandstand finale Ipswich broke forward again with Lyssandro Ximenes coming very close before Sam Donnelly scored again, with 4 out of 5 conversions the final score was a flattering 33-0 to Ipswich against strong and committed opposition. Reuben Bolton was very impressed, “that was a much improved performance, with very committed defence and work at the ruck from the off.”
Undoubtedly these wins have positioned Ipswich well for the third round of the Cup on 16th December and a very tasty fixture against local rivals YM next week