It needed two power plays from Ollie Dodwell to secure a victory at Priest Hill on Sunday and see Warlingham’s U16s win their first Surrey county league title.

Warlingham knew that Sutton and Epsom would present a stern final test at the end of a tough season, but they never anticipated their running rugby game being completely disrupted by some controversial refereeing, which saw them reduced to 14 players for one 10-minute spell.

Yet such is the spirit of Warlingham’s under-16s this term, even when they were one man down, they managed to increase their lead.

Up against a big and strong Sutton pack, Warlingham did not wait long to demonstrate the pace and power of their running game.

When Aaron Kasza-Martin stole the ball on the first line-out of the match, he fed it to Rob Farmer who broke through midfield and passed to centre James Thornton. With some deft footwork, Thornton bypassed three Sutton defenders before passing to Dodwell, who steamrollered through two half-hearted tackles on his way to the line.

Dodwell was on the charge again 20 minutes later from a tap penalty quickly taken by Liam Gallagher. The tall forward was once again knocking all tacklers out of the way before going in the left-hand corner to make the score 10-0.

That score brough Dodwell's personal tally for the season to an outstanding 61 points.

The best move of the game came soon after, when virtually on his own tryline, Rob Farmer cleaned up the loose ball and went on a typically swerving, elusive run up field, off-loading in the tackle to Justin Grabban who then raced past the Sutton backs, only to be thwarted just a few strides from the line.

But with much of the game disrupted by some idiosyncratic refereeing by Mr Pattern, Warlingham had to work hard defensively, props George Clarke and Jamal King hitting the breakdowns hard, Eddie Watkins dominant in the air at line-outs, fly-half Charlie Corbett putting in a series of key tackles and hooker Will Downes constantly rucking opponents off the ball.

Sutton thought they had got themselves back into the game when, after the referee saw fit to award a sequence of no less than 10 penalties against the visiting side, the hosts finally broke through the resolute 14-man Warlingham defence to score just before half-time.

With Warlingham still one player down early in the second half, it was the league leaders who were pressurising the home side’s 22.

A clearance kick failed to find touch, and flying winger Josh Persaud-Walters scooped up the ball and when tackled five yards short of the Sutton line, managed to pass to Harry Wrightson who muscled his way over for what proved to be the decisive score.

“That’s fantastic, absolutely fantastic,” was the reaction of Warlingham’s delighted coach, Neil Farmer to the performance of his side, who until September had played all their junior rugby in the third division of the Surrey county leagues.

Now, after successive promotions, they will play in the top tier of Surrey rugby from September.