Prolific Sutton show Leamington no mercy

A weakened Spa squad suffered a comprehensive defeat at the hands of the Midlands One West leaders in the semi-final of the Warwickshire Cup, shipping 12 tries in the process.

However, Leamington can take some comfort from the fact that Sutton had amassed 240 points in their previous three matches against higher-level opposition to take their total to the season to 1,110.

A poor attendance summed up the appetite for this fixture and Spa’s inability to field a recognised full front row led to uncontested scrums from the outset.

Sutton scored their first try in the opening minute and collected a second, converted try, soon after.

They had to wait a further 15 minutes before they added to their total and in the interim, Spa’s Sam Nunn had slotted over a penalty goal.

Spa had some positive moments, with Tom Daplyn and Simon Mallard linking on the far flank to put pressure on the Sutton defence.

However, they were finding it difficult to contend with the pace of the opposition attack and conceded three more tries before the break to trail 34-3.

Spa’s resolute tackling did ensure that no more damage was done and one particular text-book tackle from Craig Smith prevented a certain try.

The second half mirrored the pattern of the first period, with Sutton comfortably dealing with the invention and pace of Spa’s back line, while simultaneously adding to their own points total.

Five more tries were conceded before Spa were able to engineer a response.

Patrick Northover set Alex Carroll off on a run in Spa territory and, as the fly-half cleverly drew the opposition towards him, he sent a crisp pass out to Craig Smith.

The big lock, who had been forced to fill in in the back row, set off down the wing at pace, eluding two tackles and then using his turn of speed to wrong-foot Sutton’s full-back to race in under the posts.

Northover added the conversion to provide just reward for the immense effort shown by the hosts in difficult circumstances.

One final converted score from Sutton brought an end to proceedings.