Woodbridge surged forward against Southwold, mindful of last season’s away loss to their neighbours.

Cooke, Cope and Scopes moved the ball quickly and centre, Yorke, pushed into the home 22 as the defences held.

A kick allowed Southwold’s O’Conner and hooker Hall to force a scrum which was evenly-balanced, Woodbridge holding the strike and pushing back into the hosts’ 22, only for O’Connor again and Sutton, to drive the ball back, with Ellwood much in evidence.

On 30 minutes Crowther stole in the loose and good hands got the ball out wide on the left for O’Reilly to start the scoring.

Southwold came straight back, exploiting a scrum from the kick off to get flanker Fisher over and perk up the crowd.

Surprisingly Woodbridge elected not to kick a penalty soon after but continued to pin Southwold in their 22 where they defended very well.

A five-metre scrum saw quick ball out to Warrior fly-half Hart the on to O’Reilly who scored his second.

Southwold looked the more motivated as they turned on the pressure in the second half, winning a number of penalties.

The visitors defended their 5m line as play moved from side to side, the attackers testing first the forwards and then, spinning it wide to flood the backs.

Finally replacement Adam Smith scored a forward’s try – shoved over by his pack.

Injuries increased as did substitutions but Southwold were better at rucking and mauling, driving down centre-field where the energetic James Hall took possession and scored against little defence.

Woodbridge conceded more opportunities which gave Southwold the edge they needed to re-occupy the red zone and get Adam Smith over for his second try and open a two score gap.

The last quarter of the match saw both sides putting in some exciting attacking runs through their back lines.

Woodbridge finally held on to some passes and Gwyn Church scored to reduce the gap to five points with insufficient minutes to go.

PHOTOS: SIMON BALLARD