Mersea unbeaten

MERSEA Island preserved their proud unbeaten home league record into a fourth season in this tight and thoroughly absorbing encounter.

A minute's silence was observed by both sets of players prior to kick off as a mark of respect for club treasurer John Langton who sadly passed away last week.

Mersea took the lead when skipper Jon Williams slotted a penalty, but after dominating the early exchanges the Islanders lost their direction and composure, missing out on some clear scoring opportunities with a comedy of errors, indiscipline and wrong decisions.

Sudbury defended extremely well and managed to keep the flow of Mersea attacks out, and began to push hard out of defence.

Front-row forwards Andy Holmes and Dave Murrell were outstanding in the loose, and well supported by locks Bradshaw and Daniels. Sudbury came very close to scoring a try only for man of the match Brendan Cook to put in a superb cover tackle. However they did manage to slot over a penalty by their scrum-half Wooderson, and the teams turned around at half-time with the score level.

With the wind and slope advantage Sudbury probably felt the game was there for the taking, but yet again the Islanders played with true Island grit for the second half, defending superbly and playing a far more controlled and structured half.

As the game entered the closing stages, both teams began to tire and both sets of players pushed hard for the decisive score to claim victory. Sudbury looked to have broken free with Fijian winger Tamani finding space only for Bradshaw to display great speed and fitness to catch the winger and bundle him into touch.

Mersea drove hard from the final lineout and Fields broke down field and Mersea earned a penalty on the 22. Le Marquand came very close with his attempt into the wind but the game deservedly ended in a draw between two closely-matched teams.

Final score:

Mersea Island 3

Sudbury RFC 3