Having dispatched Sudbury’s 2nd XV at home two weeks earlier, Mersea Island travelled to Great Cornard to play the reverse against a much-changed Sudbury side.

Welcoming back James Rolfe to the engine room, Mersea set about their work early, with stable scrum and grunt in the pack giving the visitors an early defensive scrum inside the Sudbury 22. The 8-man shove forced a tighthead, and number 8 Ben Norfolk picked and went left. After a short ball back to the unbound forwards hit it into the midfield, Aidan Frensham floated a pass out to fullback Isaac Sestak. Cutting back against the grain, Sestak’s speed proved to much fo the sliding defenders and he opened the scoring for Mersea. Both teams were definitely up for a contest and showed endeavour on every attack. And although Sudbury pressed, it was Mersea who scored next.

A Midfield scrum on Sudbury’s 10m line gave Mersea another opportunity to strike. Messy ball from the base of the scrum forced Frensham to shovel it back to Sestak. From a standing start, Sestak went left to skin both Sudbury defenders, before the in-out near the left-hand touchline bamboozled the cover for Sestak to score his second. Tom Struth slotted the extras for a 0-12 lead after the first quarter.

The scrum was beginning to be a weapon for Mersea, and another solid platform inside the Sudbury 22 gave Norfolk another oppotinuty to run. With three defenders hanging off him, Norfolk offloaded to Tom Lambelle who sprung forward over the last couple of feet to score Mersea’s third. With only a few minutes until half time, Sudbury had a scrum in the Mersea 22, and from their own messy ball from the back, the Scrumhalf darted through to post the home sides first points of the match. Not to be outdone, Mersea capitalised on an attacking penalty to take a lineout deep inside the Sudbury 22. Front ball was defended well, but after two phases in the forwards, Norfolk went straight, to crash over and score for a halftime lead of 22 to 7.

Following the restart, it was Sudbury who go the early touch in by scoring a lovely individual try down the right edge; their player weaving their way 70 metres to score. This seemed to coincide with a drastic change in the weather with the heavens opening up. Undeterred, Mersea upped the ante, and from yet another Norfolk pick from the back of the scrum, Mersea attacked wide right. Left wing James Deighton – sitting at inside centre – drew two defenders before slipping a pass around the corner to Sestak who skated in for his third.

With the visitors scrum still winning ball, Mersea had yet another launchpad just inside the Sudbury red zone; Norfolk busting his way to within inches of the whitewash. A pick and go from the returning Toby Holmes-Lord caught the retreating defence on its heals, and he crashed over from short range to score Mersea’s 6th try of the day. Struth slotted the difficult conversion to extend the score to 36 to 12.

With the game grinding to an end, Sudbury managed to dot down for a third; quick ball letting their player slip through from 30 metres out. As the whistle went for no side, Mersea could look back on another job well done against a fit and organised Sudbury 2nd XV. This win cements a solid midtable finish around both Fakenham and Thurston. With Fakenham up next, and the final game of the season at home against Woodbridge to come, Mersea haver the chance to finish a respectable 5th place in the London & SE Counties 2 Eastern Counties.