Saturday 29th March 2008
Mersea Island 3 Sudbury 3
Sudbury’s penultimate fixture of the season ended in a disappointing draw on Saturday as a strong onshore wind destroyed any chance of a meaningful fixture between the teams lying first and second in London League North East 4.
Playing with a slight first half advantage from the almost perpendicular wind, Mersea stuck to their usual game plan and kept the ball very much among their strong, but immobile forwards. With ten minutes played, Sudbury were penalised for hands in a ruck and the Mersea scrum half defied the elements by kicking the resultant penalty. Sudbury equalised twelve minutes later when Mathew Wooderson showed equal accuracy with the boot but the remaining hour’s play became a stalemate with neither team able to add to their initial score. Strangely Mersea did not seek to maximise their first half weather advantage by kicking into Sudbury’s right hand corner and when the teams turned round at 3 - 3, the visitors were in with a good chance.
For ten minutes after half time Sudbury tried hard to unleash their clearly dominant backs, but the unrelenting wind made any attempt at open attacking rugby utterly futile. Outside centre Mark Bolton came closest to breaking the deadlock when he made a half break and chipped ahead over the advancing Mersea three quarter line. Unfortunately a typically cynical late tackle halted Bolton’s progress and although the referee awarded a penalty, Wooderson missed a very difficult kick and the chance was lost. A minor fracas between the opposing sets of forwards, which resulted in both teams losing a player to the sin bin for ten minutes, was the only other interesting moment in an intensely dull match.
Sudbury’s last appearance of the season is at home to Basildon on 12 April 2008, but events elsewhere will determine which league the Club plays in next season.
