Recent encounters between Sutton & Epsom and Chobham have the habit of producing close matches with no more than a few points between the two sides.

Last Saturday’s meeting at Fowlers Wells was no exception, with Sutton slipping to a 23-20 defeat despite outscoring the home side by three tries to two.

The result dropped Sutton to fourth in the London Division One South table, at the expense of Chobham, who climed to third.

Sutton were undone, in part, by the number of penalties they conceded as well as some excellent kicking from the Chobham fly Alex Sears, who penalised Sutton from the kicking tee as well as with booming kicks from hand.

Seeking an unprecedented 12th successive victory, Sutton attained the almost perfect start.

Within the first 15 minutes Kyren Ghumra and Andy Nichols had scored tries.

Ghumra pounced on a loose ball outside the Chobham 22 metre line and with only the Chobham hooker standing in his way, his electric pace made a try the simplest of tasks.

After another period of sustained pressure on the Chobham line, the ball was swept along the Sutton back line and Nichols took advantage of an overlap.

Sutton were not able to develop a platform from which they could secure the match in the first half, as the hosts began to find their own game.

Chobham defended like terriers at the breakdown requiring Sutton to commit more players to the ruck thereby leaving subsequent ball carriers isolated.

Penalties against Sutton for holding on in the tackle and turnovers started to increase and Sears landed three penalties before the end of the half to leave Sutton holding the most slender of leads - 10-9.

The highlight of the match from a Sutton perspective came when Matt Whitaker opened the second half scoring.

He peeled off the back of a Sutton lineout, on the Chobham 22, and slipped through three Chobham tackles to score close to the posts - leaving Steve Munford a simple task for the conversion.

While Sutton defended their lead for most of the second half at Dover before Christmas, Chobham were a different proposition.

They applied immense pressure on the Sutton line, and after Mike Blakeburn took a yellow card for the team, the Chobham pack drove over on two occasions leaving Sutton requiring a converted try to maintain their unbeaten record.

To their credit, Sutton stuck at their task with impressive resolution.

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Over: Kyren Ghumra touches down for his try

With time running out they drove forward with purpose allowing Steve Munford to slot a penalty when Chobham offended in defence reducing the deficit to three points.

From the restart Sutton were back on the attack and again Chobham conceded a penalty.

Instead of seeking three points for a draw from a kick at goal, the visitors opted to seek a match winning try.

Frankie Murray kicked for touch but unfortunately Sutton were not able to secure possession from the subsequent line out which allowed Chobham to clear their lines. 

With that the match was lost as well as the unbeaten run dating back almost three and a half months.

Gosport & Fareham are the visitors to Rugby Lane this Saturday, the reverse fixture in September yielded 89 points between the two teams with Sutton notching up 65 of them. Kick-off is at 2pm.

Team: Ian Knott, Kyren Ghumra, Guy Stuckey-Clarke, Andy Matthews, Andy Nichols (rep. Sam Hurley), Frankie Murray, Steve Munford, Raynn Bruce, Phil Williams, Tariq Al Khaldi (rep. Craig Bellringer), Mike Blakeburn, Matt Harwood, Chris Pointing (rep. George London), James Caddy, Matt Whitaker.

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