1st XV Match report - 7th Jan 2023

David Daniels
SCRFC 1st XV Team Manager

Match report - 7th Jan 2023

Leicester Forest RFC 24pts v Sutton Coldfield RFC 38pts

Regional 2 North Midlands

Happy New Year to all supporters of Sutton Coldfield RFC ...and what a start it has been to the New Year with Sutton 1st XV securing a convincing 38-24 bonus point victory away to a strong Leicester Forest side, who Sutton beat by just a single point, 29-28 in the reverse fixture at Sutton back in October 2022.

Last weeks game came after a 4 week break from competitive league rugby, with the two fixtures before the two week Christmas break postponed due to frozen pitches but last weekend the Sutton team hit the ground running on their return to Regional 2 league rugby with a dynamic performance, which swept aside the efforts of their illustrious opponents, who provided formidable opposition in a close fought contest but Sutton prevailed with the win taking them from 3rd in the table at the start of play to 2nd in the table, just 5 points behind league leaders Long Eaton, (with a game in hand over the league leaders, who have played 14 games)... and Leek slip to 3rd place 1 point behind Sutton in a close 4 horse race at the top of the table, 2 games into the second half of the season.

The game also gave Sutton their first experience of the RFU sponsored hybrid pitch, which has 100% natural sports grass injected with turf fibres meaning good drainage and less wear on the natural grass making it the perfect pitch for this fixture after the heavy rain over the days proceeding the game and both teams made the most of the good running conditions with strong attacking runs throughout the entertaining contest.

Unfortunately, once again Sutton had late changes to the team on the Friday evening & Saturday morning before the game, with winger Miles Gregory having to pull out with a hamstring injury that failed a late fitness test, so Henry Nevitt came off the bench to fill the vacancy on the wing and went on to have the game of his life, when he charged down a conversion attempt on the stroke of halftime saving 2 points, with the score at 12-17 to Sutton, then he ripped the ball from the attacking players hands as he went to ground the ball under the posts saving a certain 7 points, with the score at 12-24 midway through the second half. Happily, the other late change was the re-introduction of prop Scott Toy, who had stepped back from playing to become a spectator over recent seasons but he responded to the Sutton plight and agreed to return to the bench to provide cover for the front row to ease the burden on Sutton's verteran props Sean Harrison and Dave Smith, who have performed magificently all season and when called into action Scott added to the excellent performance by the Sutton pack on his welcome return. 

As for the game itself, after early rain Leicester Forest kicked off in dry conditions, facing bright sunlight at the Sutton end of the pitch and gathering the kick off Sutton returned play into the Leicester 22, winning a penalty for not releasing the ball after the tackle and fullback Matt Smith kicked the penalty from 25 metres to give Sutton a 3-0 lead after just 2 minutes of play.

From the restart Sutton contined to play well with the scrum holding strong against powerful opposition and the Sutton lineout operated well with 2nd row Harry Moxon notably stealing an opposition throw during the early exchanges but it was the homeside who claimed the next score when they took the ball on from a 5 metre lineout and flanker Luke Daines squeezed over for the opening try, which was converted by fly half Niall Collett to take the lead to 7-3, with 12 minutes played.

Again from the restart positive play by Sutton took the game back into the Leicester half and a strong attacking drive, going right brought a try for 2nd row Harry Moxon, converted by Matt Smith to snatch back the lead at 10-7 just 2 minutes later, with 14 minutes on the clock. The Sutton momentum continued over the next period of play, with player/coach & backs substitute, Nathan Burchell coming onto the field as replacement for centre Tom McNamee, who was injured during one of his many dynamic contributions but with half time approaching the Sutton breakthrough came after great approach work led by the illusive running of Nathan Burchell, when the ball was fed right and Sutton fullback Matt Smith made a darting run for the tryline. Unfortunately, the gifted fullback was stopped short of the line but the ball was fed to outside centre Ben Morgan, who marked his return to 1st XV action with a try by the posts, after a wrist injury earlier in the season had kept him out of the team for many weeks. Matt Smith added the conversion to stretch Sutton's lead to 17-7 with around 5 minutes to play to the break.

Although Sutton appeared to be on top at this point in the game to their credit, in the closing minutes of the first half Leicester Forest stepped up their game and on the stroke of halftime a fine solo run by flanker Cameron Stewart found gaps in the Sutton defence and he scored an excellent try by the posts. Fortunately for Sutton, Henry Nevitt was quickly off the line to charge down the conversion attempt restricting the halftime score to 12-17.

With just 5 points seperating the two teams at the start of the second half there was fierce competion from both teams to take the initiative but the Sutton side held firm against their big, hard running opponents and 19 minutes into the second half Sutton took advantage of a favourable bounce, after a great break by 2nd row Ollie Gregory in the build-up put Sutton on the front foot in the opposition half and the bounce from a clever Sutton chip ahead into the Leicester Forest 22 evaded the Leicester defenders and Sutton flyhalf Laurie Harries judged his run perfectly to gather the ball cleanly then race over for an excellent try, which was converted by Matt Smith to extend the Sutton lead to 24-12.

However, the Leicester Forest side were not finished yet and 6 minutes later they were battering on the door at the Sutton try line and tight head prop Jordon Gough forced his way over in the corner from close range to score a try wide out. The difficult conversion was missed and the score closed to 24-17 with 15 minutes to play in a compelling contest but there was still time for Sutton to stretch their lead to 31-17 when Ollie Gregory capped a fine performance with a well taken try in the right corner as fullback Matt Smith was again stopped just short of the line but the ball was made available by the foraging of flanker Ollie Pegler and the tall 2nd row was on hand to pick-up and drive over for a well deserved bonus point try. Matt Smith then landed an outstanding touchline conversion to give Sutton a convincing 14 point lead going into the final 10 minutes.

Once again from the restart Sutton continued to press and another well judged chip through by Sutton scrum half Tom Harris from the halfway line was hacked on towards the Leicester Forest try line with centre Ben Morgan in hot pursuit and the centre was able to guide the ball over the tryline, securing his second try of the day and Sutton's fifth. Once again Matt Smith landed the conversion to put the score at 38-17, and complete a full house of 5/5 conversions plus an early penalty to set Sutton on their way to an excellent victory and a great start to 2023 lifting them to 2nd in the league table.

However, whilst Sutton could celebrate the win, it was the homeside who played out the final act to complete a great opening game of 2023, when winger Lewis Elliman gathered the ball in broken play and ran through the midfield to score under the posts from longe range evading the would be Sutton defenders to secure the consolation of a try scoring bonus point and Niall Collett added the simple conversion for a final score of 24-38.

This weekend Sutton 1st XV welcome old friends and respected rivals, Nuneaton Old Ed's to the RSG, Walmley Road to continue their respective league campaigns hoping for fair weather and a fair result. May the best team on the day win. All support welcome! KO 2.15pm.

Other team results:

Sutton 2nd XV 0pts v Wolverhampton XV 24pts

It was good to see a Sutton 2nd XV take to the field at the RSG on the first rugby weekend of 2023 and although they lost an entertaining game 0-24 against a useful Wolverhampton side it was great day for the Sutton Rugby Club and with the 1st XV doing well plus the Sutton Casuals making regular outings the playing base at Sutton is continuing to grow with Rugby Football at Sutton the winner everytime.

In the game it is reported that Sutton applied all the serious pressure throughout the game but were unable to score and it was their astute opposition, who defended then exploited the Sutton errors to secure a comfortable 24-0 away win.