Positive mood for Sudbury Rugby Club after defeating top side Old Haberdashers

Sudbury complete a run of four tough matches against teams above them at Amersham & Chiltern on Saturday, and with two victories from three, coach Ben Scully says the team will travel there ‘with every confidence’, writes Ken Watkins.

Old Haberdashers, 4th in London League 1 North, were beaten 32-27 in a hard fought match at Whittome Field on Saturday.

“We’ve just got five points against 4th in the league,” said Scully, “and that’s a big scalp.”

Eton Manor (7th) were beaten in the first of the four games, then leaders Rochford Hundred predictably beat Sudbury, before Saturday’s success.

“The mood in the camp was positive,” said Scully, “despite the heavy defeat at Rochford. We’ll got to Amersham on the back of three great performances.”

Sudbury were beaten 24-20 at home by Amersham (6th) in October.

“Saturday is one of those games we want a bit of redemption from,” said Scully. “We let ourselves down in the home fixture. But if we can tweak a few things from today, and keep on with this kind of performance, we’ll go there with a lot of confidence.”

Sudbury have set themselves targets for the second half of the season in terms of results.

“We had a good feeling this week, but with Haberdashers’ record and where they sit in the

league you could have called it either way, and we would have been happy to take any points. So to take five points, and nearly a five-point whitewash, I’m really happy with that.

“We had a purple patch where we scored three tries untouched which they had no answers to. The middle block of that game they had no answers.

“I’m just a little bit frustrated that we didn’t capitalise on that momentum, and we gifted them two bonus points they didn’t deserve,” said Scully.

“They are a big physical team and they showed that in the last 10 minutes. They increased their physicality and we turned down ours. The scoreline suggests otherwise, but I think it was a convincing five-pointer.”

l Frazer Beckett, sidelined with a wrist fracture since the opening game of the season at Ruislip on September 1, is back in contact training.

“He has been sidelined for a long time and it’s a painful injury. We just have to make sure his wrist reacts well to contact, and that he is mentally ready,” said Scully. “We don’t want to rush him.”