Sutton 2s Open Cup Defence with a Win

On Saturday, Sutton’s 2nds marked the first round of the Warwickshire cup with a convincing win against the familiar opponents of Kenilworth. When the sides met two weeks ago, Sutton were often outmuscled up front, struggling to retain possession at the breakdown. With this in mind the forwards stepped up to put together a much better performance; demonstrated in the opening exchanges when a mighty Sutton scrum won a penalty which Alan Rowlands slotted to take an early lead.

The game’s first try came minutes later through centre Ewen Tweedie (one of several players to score two weeks on the trot) a hard run up the middle sending him through the defensive line, before forcing his way over in the corner with two defenders clinging on. From there a series of scrummaging turnovers put Sutton deep in the opposition twenty two where the forwards came close to driving their way over the line for several minutes before man of the match Simon Millard found the hole in the defence for the only other try of the half.

After the restart, a frantic passage of play saw both sides spreading the ball wide or chipping over the top untill Sutton again found themselves packing down for a scrum in the Kenilworth half. The home team got a nudge on which lead to Dean Harper scoring his fourth try in two weeks. The next try came from the backs, when Alex Morgan lured in the defence before off-loading out of a big hit to unleash wing Rhamel Blake who turned on the pace to go forty metres down the right-hand side untouched. Morgan then bagged a try of his own when replacement Steve Piper dummied his way to a half-break off-loading to the fullback, who stepped away from a couple of defenders before being ushered over the line by Harper.

Prolonged possession coupled with determination allowed Kenilworth to get themselves on the score sheet, Sutton’s defence just splintering after a long period in their own twenty two. Sutton soon came back however through Tweedie who exploited an overlap in the retreating Kenilworth defence to score his second of the day from close range. The game was rounded off by a mesmeric solo effort from Morgan who, spotting the space out wide, raced around two defenders before sidestepping the fullback and cruising his way down the left flank as the covering winger failed to catch him. A good day from the tee saw Rowlands nail five conversions, which - coupled with the early penalty - gave him a personal tally of 13 points, the final score 48-7.

Scorers: Tries: Blake, Harper, Millard, Morgan(2), Tweedie(2)
Cons: Rowlands(5)
Pen: Rowlands