"Sudbury entertained Braintree to a friendly match at their excellent Whittome Field ground after a year of internal upheavals which has left them struggling for form.
Braintree, on the other hand, have come off a run of three victories and are a team full of confidence. It showed when, only a few minutes in, some lovely handling in the backs allowed Josh Wadforth to go over for the first of his four tries in a virtuoso performance at fly half.
Braintree continued to press and, following a strong scrum, scrum half Keelan Joslin fed the ball to Alex Eveleigh to score the second try. Braintree's forwards were winning most of the rucks with George Hume, Billy Carroll and Michael Lawrence causing havoc in the Sudbury ranks. Cameron Kerr and Josh Hammond were also in fine form, providing a great platform for the slick Braintree backs to work from allowing Josh Wadforth to add two more tries to end the first half leading 22 v 0.
The second half began with the same forward pressure and Henry Irving and George Slack hit the rucks with strength and precision. Following a kick out of their 22 by Sudbury, Jared Woolgar fielded the ball and fed it to left wing Jack Munro to score the first of his 2 tries.
Sudbury were beginning to make a number of handling errors and the excellent Cameron Laudrum took advantage to allow Jack Munro through for his second try.
This was quickly followed by a superb individual effort from Keelan Joslin and a fine finish from Centre Drew McManus.
The pressure continued on the Sudbury line as one of their ex-players, and one of Braintree's outstanding forwards, Will Lawrence powered over after a superb passage of play.
The Braintree team were playing scintillating rugby now, running the ball from all areas of the field and passing and offloading with great precision. Josh Wadforth scored his fourth try before the best try of the match was created by strong forward work and swift handling through the three-quarters for Jared Woolger to finish in the corner. This was followed by a deserved try for the hard working wing Thomas Wright and another for Jared Woolgar when he looped Drew McManus in the final pulsating move of the match.
This was an utterly complete performance by a fantastic Braintree team who scored 13 tries and conceded none. Although Sudbury fought bravely, there is no doubt they have a lot of rebuilding to do and we can be sure that they will improve by the time the two sides meet in the league in a few weeks time.
Braintree were also missing some key players and our thoughts go out to our best player and talisman, Ollie Hougham, who dislocated his shoulder playing for his school yesterday. We all hope for a full recovery and speedy return.

Tries:
Wadforth 4
Munro 2
Woolgar 2
Eveleigh
Joslin
McManus
W. Lawrence
Wright

Conversions:
Joslin 3
Wadforth 2"