Sutton & Epsom keep the pressure on the league leaders (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Bonus point win has Sutton & Epsom on the coat tails of top spot

10:12am Monday 4th March 2013 in Sport

By David Steel

Sutton & Epsom needed a strong performance on Saturday to keep up the pressure on the league leaders in London Division Two South West.

And they succeeded in achieving with an excellent display of running rugby in the first half against a well-drilled Portsmouth side, eventually running out 32-14 winners.

Sutton did not allow the Hampshire side to play and with 75 per cent possession, Sutton ran in four tries in the first half through Pete Matthews, James Caddy, Shawn Renwick and Matt Whittaker.

There was excellent interplay and strong running from both forwards and backs with Austin Sheppard at number five leading the way.

This meant that it was 22 – 0 to Sutton at half time with a bonus point already in the bag.

After such a strong first half, it was likely to be more difficult in the second half and this proved to be the case.

Portsmouth started strongly and scored very early on through their full back.

After this Portsmouth continued to put pressure on the Sutton line but the visitors held out, broke down field and steadied the ship through another well-worked try by Whittaker.

After this, Portsmouth gained more ball and put pressure onto Sutton which culminated in a try by the Portsmouth number eight. This put the score at 27-14 to Sutton.

The next 15 minutes were somewhat frantic with both sides playing some strong rugby and with both sides having chances to add to the score.

However, it was Sutton who had the final score when the Sutton right wing, Mike Cartledge, kicked the ball through from a Portsmouth error in midfield, he was able to collect the ball and score out wide. The conversion was missed and Sutton had won 32-14.

The first half saw Sutton play some of the best rugby of the season, if we can continue with this quality of play, then we will be in the mix for one of the top spots at the end of the season

This weekend’s match is at London Cornish - kick Off is at 2.15 pm.