Sutton Colts Match report - 7th Jan 2018

Match report - 7th Jan 2018
North Midlands Colts League

The Sutton Colts recorded a tremendous 28-10 win last Sunday against a very good Dudley Kingswinford side and with only two games remaining, a win that goes along way to securing the North Midlands Colts League - Division 2 title.

Sutton were able to field a strong side with both Dan Carruthers (pictured top left) and Reiss Chahal (pictured top right) included, together with 17 year old Lewis Belton (pictured bottom left) who is currently with the Worcester Warriors Academy and King Edwards School student Oliver Pegler (pictured bottom right) who was making his first competitive start of the season.
Sutton made a bright start and took an early lead when good work by Liam Goodall released scrum half Jack Wells who showed a clean pair of heels to the despairing cover defence to touch down under the posts giving Harry Wainwright a routine conversion and a 7-0 lead for the home side. Remarkably, despite some good passages of play by both sides, that’s the way it remained for the remainder of the half.

The visitors wasted no time getting back into the game after the break when Alex Craig showed a great turn of speed down the left touchline before touching down in the corner; the difficult conversion was missed but the Sutton lead was cut to 7-5 and Sutton knew they had a game on their hands and that they had to top up their game and this they did. Roared on by the sizeable home crowd, 16 year old leading scorer Sam Grimshaw, scored his 12th try of the season, and debutant Lewis Belton raced over the whitewash in quick succession; the excellent Will Smewin having moved to fly half converted both tries to ease the home side into a 21-5 lead. Never giving up DK fought back and Callum Nicholls forced his way over to keep the game alive only for the outstanding Kieran Henderson to finally put the game to bed with his 4th try of the season and this in only the Denstone College flanker’s 4th appearance; Will Smewin knocked over an excellent conversion, which wrapped up what was in the end a fairly emphatic 28-10 victory.

Several outstanding performances by the Sutton lads as already highlighted but the back row contributions of Oliver Pegler, Kieran Henderson and James Bishop, proved invaluable with Sheffield University fresher Dan Carruthers, playing at inside centre, showing the class and tenacity that sets him apart.

This Sunday, Sutton's penultimate game of the league season takes the team of outstanding youngsters on a trip into Worcestershire to face Malvern, knowing that a win would move them tantalisingly close to securing the title.

TEAM: Liam Goodall, Reiss Chahal, Dan Baldock, Harry Moxon(Capt), Lewis Belton, Oliver Pegler, Kieran Henderson, James Bishop, Jack Wells, Harry Wheelwright, Ryan Potter, Dan Carruthers, Sam Grimshaw, Michael Moore, Will Smewin. Reps (used): Jake Olney, Ben McElhannan, Bradley Sprague, Charles Snow, Ben Garratty, Sam Brown