Sudbury overcame adversity and triumphed over high-class opposition on Sunday when they won at Cambridge in a fixture that has never before yielded any success.
Travelling with just 15 players, and with several regulars missing, Sudbury's task looked impossible against a club with one of the strongest youth set-ups in the area, but in a dramatic second-half the visitors' skill and commitment produced an even
tually well deserved victory.
On a wet, slow pitch, Cambridge had the better of the early exchanges, and though Sudbury's forwards held their own in the first phase possession battle, the hosts were dominant at ruck and maul.
After a period of sustained pressure, when Sudbury hardly touched the ball for 15 minutes, Cambridge scored a try and the result looked as though it might be heading in the same direction as previous encounters between the two teams.
Then, towards the end of the first half, in what would prove to be a decisive turnaround, the Sudbury forwards began to exert real pressure on Cambridge's scrum and lineout and no further points were conceded.
Two minutes into the second half came the moment that changed the match. Ten metres inside Cambridge territory, the Sudbury hooker was adjudged to have thrown the ball crookedly into a lineout and Cambridge, fearful of the now dominant Sudbury scrum, elected to try a lineout of their own.
Duncan Mailey won a clean catch against the throw and the ball was worked swiftly wide to full back Shaun Leatham who weaved his way through the opposition defence to score from 35 metres out.
The try stunned Cambridge and the rest of the match was all Sudbury. Rucks and mauls were suddenly being efficiently won, Mailey and Dan Taylor all but cleaned up in the lineout; the big ball carriers Josh Brown, Danny MacSweeney and Joe Birmingham pounded the Cambridge defensive line.
Sudbury's backs made the most of the possession won by their forwards and scored two further tries. The first came from a typically determined effort by centre Tom Barry, and the match was finally sealed when fly-half Matt Cooper produced a moment of magic to send captain Phil Bagley in under the posts following a quickly-taken tap penalty.
Birmingham was declared man-of-the-match for doing a lot of what flankers do, putting in some very big hits during the difficult first half and helping to maintain possession in the second.
The full article contains 412 words and appears in Suffolk Free Press newspaper.
