By Mark Bruce

Gravesend picked up two bonus points in a valiant 33-28 loss at Regional 2 South East form team Sutton & Epsom.

With another reshuffle in the backline and coming up against a team that had scored 59 points in their last two outings, Gs may have feared the worst. It was therefore a surprise when, after 20 minutes, it was the away team who scored first when scrum-half Nires Kanaharajah followed up his own kick through, with Jack King converting.

As expected, Sutton & Epsom came back strongly. Their fluid backline made large gains and after 25 minutes one such move saw them set up in the corner and maul the ball over the whitewash.

While Gravesend were defensively putting in huge efforts - Nathan Fouche and Samraj Chahal in particular all over the park - with virtually the last play of the half Sutton scored again. Then, within 20 minutes of the restart, the men in Black & White were further behind with two more tries shipped, despite some valiant cover tackles.

Gravesend did not give up, though and after winning a couple of penalties Bradley Money crawled over the line. Any comeback was quickly extinguished, however, when Sutton scored again.

Gs now started to enjoy their best spell of the game with good field position from which Fouche, arguably the player of the day, crossed. With time ticking down there was still one more chance and it was Money who scored again. King stepped up and, as with all those kicks before, sent the ball between the posts.

With no game this weekend second-bottom Gravesend return to action at home to Old Colfeians on March 22.