It is with carefully chosen words that we look back on a match that neither side deserved to win or loose and the actual result are mere numbers compared to the lessons that were learnt, such as, sportsmanship & next time, bring a towel for the showers.

The heavy 45 degree drizzle quickly penetrated everything, the playing surface was one on which Fran Cotton would happily have wallowed and the last time we met Sudbury, we put them out of the Northampton Saints Tournament, were these omens? the boys had never experienced anything quite like this. Already soaked, both sets of forwards became entrenched, a welcome return for Noah Rosen stole from the scrum, fed Patrick Marmion, popped to Marcus Jones, to Euan Dingwall for Marmion to collect and open the Cambridge account, Jones was unable to convert from the mire. Sudbury came straight back, burying the ball in the mud under their forwards with a gradual push to our 5 mtr, winning most of the early scrums with brute force, Sudbury had Cambridge pinned on the goal line for several agonising minutes, a final turnover freed our backs, Rory Sheppard slithered down the line only to be blocked on the Sudbury 5 mtr. A tit for tat battle ensued between the forwards, Dingwall ripping, crunching tackles by Marmion, Sam Behagg making a right old nuisance of himself in the scrum couldn’t prevent Sudbury deservedly equalising. With their tails up and conditions worsening, Sudbury pilled on the pressure that, to their credit, Cambridge absorbed, Sam Buffery Turnell saw the break down the blind and simply leaped, picked up his victim for a splash down into touch, Sudbury used the ground gained to break through and place their second try. Impressively, Cambridge heads did not drop, Finlay Walker, Will Parker & Luke Webb showed their colours, sensing the ½ time whistle, shoved Sudbury off their ball, Ryan Headington carried to Louis Rawlings to pierce their defence with an equaliser which Headington then converted, honours even, we were just ahead.

Cambridge applied early pressure, but gradually lost the battle for territory, with the rain all but stopped, the pitch was a quagmire, steam rising off the pack, our forwards fought hard to win ball, Headington spoilt a line out, gritty tussles for loose ball from Marmion & Toby Hackett couldn’t stop Sudbury from creeping ahead with try #3. Pressure mounting, Sudbury again on our line, Sean Cooper cleared, Headington caught but they came back again, repeated scrums & re-sets wouldn’t shift them, Cooper cleared again, this time Rawlings took, slapped down the length of the pitch only to bought down & held up on the try line. Sudbury countered hard, but Cambridge were strong, scrapping for ball, another Marmion steal to Rawlings gave Headington the opening they had worked so hard for to place try # 3 which he converted, we were ahead with time starting to run out. What followed was a tribute to our fitness, the forwards were turning over Sudbury scrums with our backs still making valiant runs to keep the ball, Jones, defending his line, took another head knock & was carried off, our backs were tackling to hold territory, a loose ball taken by Sudbury, with a man over, managed to get all the way to our 5 mtr where Cooper pushed him into touch, the loose ball was picked up & followed them. The decisions just didn’t go our way, a penalty try given, game over. So you see, the result didn’t really reflect what happened on the park, lessons learnt, another good-natured contest finished with lady luck looking the other way, until next time.

Try Scorers:-

Patrick Marmion, Louis Rawlings & Ryan Headington

Conversions:-

Marcus Jones 0 for 1 attempt

Ryan Headington 2 for 2 attempts