Skipper James Clark inspired Sutton & Epsom to a 22-10 victory at Sevenoaks on Saturday in a replay of their London Division 2 south match.

Clark was everywhere and repeatedly stole Sevenoaks ball at rucks and mauls. His support play was phenomenal and his strength when in possession guaranteed the ball would come back on the Sutton side. Clark's efforts were very nearly matched by winger Will Newman, whose pace, strength and skill put him head and shoulders above any other back on the park.

This replay was forced on the two sides. When they played originally on November 11 Sutton suffered injuries to two front row players so after 34 minutes the scrums had to be unopposed, with Sutton winning 25-21, but the RFU league organisers declared the match void.

Things went very much the way they had gone in the previous match, Sutton having almost total control in the opening quarter, relinquishing much of it for the second quarter and then just about shading the second half.

Sutton built up a 10-0 lead with Sam Frost kicking a penalty and then converting a try by Keith Middleton, who had been put over by James Gibson. Frost was again on target with the conversion when good lineout play by Richard Nicholls led to Clark touching down.

But George Devonport was then sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes and Sevenoaks reduced the arrears to 17-10, with a try by Rob Unwin and a conversion and penalty from Guy Rowley.

Back to 15 men at the start of the second-half, Sutton renewed their assault on the Kent side's line and eventually Newman made the most of a ball won by Clark to escape one tackle and chip over the head of the full-back to score.

With hooker Josh Freidler going to the sin bin, Sutton then had to hang on.

Sutton have now played and beaten all the other teams in London 2 south. They begin the return series of matches on Saturday (3pm) when they take on Sevenoaks at home for the third meeting of the two teams in five weeks.