After a 13th straight victory confirmed second place in Regional 1 South East with two games to go, Sudbury player-coach Cameron Greenhall believes it underlines their potential to mount a serious promotion push next season.
The Blues saw off a strong challenge from Old Northamptonians on Saturday to end their amazing winning streak to prevail 17-3 at Whittome Field, ensuring they have not tasted defeat since a 19-18 scoreline at Shelford back on October 21.
Local rivals Colchester also won to confirm they will take the only promotion spot and lift the league title, but Greenhall sees no reason why it cannot be his side celebrating elevation to the fourth tier in a year’s time.
“I’ve got to have a meeting with the club and see where we’d like to go but that’s definitely my personal aim,” he said, having finished eighth last season in what was his first at the club.
“It’s a nice achievement to finish second.
"I think the players realise now how good we are and the potential we have.
"Obviously this winning run is brilliant and we hope to continue it but I just hope the squad now realise their potential and where we should be in the league.
"We had spoke about the plan to compete this year and next year is hoping to play to win.”
Sudbury head down to Southend-on-Sea on Saturday to take on basement side Westcliff, who only have three wins to their name this season, in their penultimate game ahead of hosting current third-bottom outfit Bedford Athletic on April 6.
And continuing their winning run to carry into next season is very much all they are currently focused on.
“Of course, we’re only looking at these next two games as wins and we’re finishing 15 in a row, not losing since October will be a good accolade for us to have,” said Greenhall.
And he believes there is a simple ingredient behind the run.
“We’re a tight knit group that work pretty hard for one another, it’s as simple as that,” he said.
"Obviously we’ve got a talented group of boys which is lovely but we’re just incredibly tight and fight like mad to win rugby games together.”
Saturday’s game saw the Blues have to spend most of the first half defending as they played into the wind before some late pressure eventually saw Jonny Taylor score on the stroke of half-time.
The same player got their second try, converted by Greenhall, five minutes after the restart before the player-coach put Gareth Pugh as put away to run through in the left corner towards the end of the game.
Greenhall said: “I wouldn’t say we won ugly but we won digging deep, defending well and limiting them to only three points is a fantastic defensive performance as they are a good side. They’re a much better side than the league position (7th) suggests.”
