Brentwood headed over the county border to Suffolk on Saturday with the knowledge that, in spite of their position in the lower half of the league, Sudbury had run the 3 current top teams in London 1 North very close and would be looking to finally turn an encounter with the top end of the table into a win.

With a couple of injuries and party season unavailability's Brentwood made several changes to the team that had beaten Colchester. In the pack Matt Whaley dropped into the back row with James Killington filling the vacated spot in the second row and Leo Friswell and Paul Bradley coming on to the bench. In the backs James McCarthy started at scrum half with Alex Wilson and James McLaughlin stepping in at wing and fullback respectively and Colby Dobson coming on to the bench.

A good start was imperative but Brentwood began the game with all the energy of a team still hungover from the annual Christmas Jolly Boys outing a week earlier. There were only around 5 minutes on the clock when Sudbury, having worked themselves up the field well, ruthlessly exploited a dog leg in defence to slice through the Brentwood line and evade the cover for the opening try. Conversion missed, 5-0 Sudbury.
The try gave Brentwood a much needed wake-up and the next ten minutes or so saw them get more of a foothold in the game and maintain some possession, albeit scrappy, and attempt to play in the right areas of the pitch. Sudbury, however, were effective at disrupting Brentwood's play and defended well keeping Brentwood mostly in the middle of the field.

Eventually, after an attacking foray in to Sudbury's 22 was knocked on, Sudbury had a defensive scrum. Brentwood got the nudge on and whilst Sudbury managed to get the ball out it left their ball carrier isolated. In a great back row effort, Matt Whaley was straight off the blindside flank to make a hard tackle with James Vogel soon joining him from eight to secure the ball, George Bassenger arriving from the open side to complete the turnover. The ball was whipped quickly out to Thomas Lucas Roast who had spotted that Sudbury weren't defensively aligned and pinned his ears back to race through and score in the corner. Conversion missed, 5 all.

Following the try, Brentwood appeared to have swung momentum back in their favour and for a period controlled territory and forced Sudbury into conceding several penalties in quick succession. Unfortunately, and very reminiscent of earlier games in the season, they just could not convert pressure into points with too many basic errors at crucial moments and trying to force things as frustration started to creep in.
From another good opportunity Brentwood knocked on 5 metres from the Sudbury line, giving Sudbury the 5 metre defensive scrum. Brentwood were looking to put the scrum pressure on again in the hope of forcing an error but Sudbury got the ball in and out of the scrum swiftly and went for the bold play, getting it quickly down the back line. Brentwood were completely caught out anticipating a clearing kick and could not match Sudbury's speed, both in thought and in tearing up the pitch, as Sudbury went the length of the field to score a great try from what had been a promising position for Brentwood. Conversion missed, 10-5 to Sudbury.

Brentwood again set about working their way down field to level the scores and after much effort forced their way into the 22 again. Unfortunately, their ball retention was sloppy and Sudbury reacted quicker to the ball squirting out of the side of the ruck and struck once more. Sudbury carried quickly and purposefully up field and once the ball went wide Brentwood's tacklers could do little more than flap at Sudbury's fullback as he stepped his way over to score another excellent try. Conversion missed, 15 - 5 to Sudbury.

Brentwood came straight back, restarting well and adding a 3 pointer from Thomas Lucas-Roast to their tally after Tijde Visser won a holding on penalty to take the score to 15-8. The relief was however, short lived as Brentwood then conceded two quick penalties and with it significant amounts of territory. A combination of hard running from Sudbury and lacklustre tackling from Brentwood saw them quickly up to the try line and, after a couple of phases just yards out, Sudbury went wide once again and over the whitewash for their bonus point try. This time the conversion was good too, 22-8 to Sudbury.
Brentwood had one more shot to reduce the arrears just before half time. Strong runs first from Charlie Wilkinson and then Paul Bradley put Brentwood in behind the Sudbury defence and Sudbury were forced to concede both a penalty and yellow card just a couple of metres from their own try line in order to halt the Brentwood attack. Brentwood opted to kick for the corner but the lineout was stolen and the chance lost, half time following soon after.
Brentwood had the man advantage and a 12 point deficit to make up so the second half started well when Brentwood almost immediately won a kickable penalty for Thomas Lucas Roast to claw back 3 points, 22-11. Of course straight after Brentwood failed to gather the restart and gave Sudbury the opportunity to kick their own 3 points which they took, 25-11.
Play continued to be a bit messy in the middle of the field with both teams competing hard for the ball on the floor but eventually Brentwood found themselves with a scrum just outside of the Sudbury 22. The scrum was the only facet of the game in which Brentwood had the upper hand and the pack set about marching Sudbury backwards at a rate of knots, only for the referee to reset the scrum. The same happened again at the reset but Brentwood were told to use it, which took the backs as by surprise as it did the travelling Brentwood support, the result being that the ball was overrun and dropped. Sudbury again reacted far quicker and pounced on the loose ball, taking it through one tight phase before getting it wide again. For Brentwood the result was unfortunately the same as it had been in the first half - they were skinned on the outside with a final neat inside pass evading the covering defence and Sudbury going over to score another top-notch long range effort. The conversion was good, 32 - 11 to Sudbury.
Brentwood came back at Sudbury again, and after making the hard yards up field James Vogel looked to be through only being stopped by a tap tackle. Charlie Wilkinson was bundled into touch just short from the phase after but at the resultant lineout the ball landed straight into James Killington's bread basket. It was recycled and sent wide, Charlie Wilkinson going over for the try this time and Thomas Lucas Roast's conversion took the score to 32-18.
With time ebbing away Brentwood were now realistically playing for the bonus point, all hopes of which were extinguished when from a set lineout moved Sudbury sliced straight through the middle of Brentwood yet again to add another try and take the score to an unassailable 37 -18.
With the game well and truly gone, Brentwood's misery continued as James Vogel was sent to the sin bin and Sudbury added the icing to their already large cake by adding their 7th well taken try of the day, converted to take the 44 - 18 win.
Brentwood will regret their inability to convert pressure into points early on in the game and some disappointingly passive defence at times. Ultimately though they were outplayed by a good Sudbury team who were well deserving of their win, having scored some fantastic tries.

There will be plenty to work on before next week's encounter with Harpenden who currently sit in 6th in the league, just 3 points behind Brentwood, and a much improved performance is needed if Brentwood are to return to winning ways at home.