Sutton & Epsom can be proud of their performance at London Irish in this London Division One match on Saturday.

Despite being eight places below second placed Irish Sutton matched the exiles in all aspects of the match and dominated up front.

Sutton’s front row props Ashley Williams and Harry Paul with Hooker Neville Harrington are not the usual front row monsters but superior technique and the power coming through from locks Austin Sheppard and Adam Blissett saw them disrupt the Irish pack time and again forcing the home side to give away penalties.

Blissett, Sheppard and flanker Felix Symonds also dominated at the lineout.

The loss of Symonds injured late in the second half will be a concern for coach Jeff Parsons, Symonds has been a tower of strength all season.

What was also great to see from this side which has not had the greatest start to the season was the concentration and intensity of their defence with all the backs making their tackles and covering every move of the very tricky Irish back line.

The Sutton back row Symonds, Chris Pointing and the ubiquitous Matt Whitaker snuffed out any moves around the base of the scrum.

Wings Andy Nichols and Sam Hurley smashed anything wide and centres James Matthews and Steve Warnham were rock solid in the centre.

Full-back Louis Parker swept up the clever chip kicks Irish persistently put through and there was no change when Jamie Pearson took over from Harry Paul, David Crowest took over from Symonds in the scrum and Colin Richens replaced an injured James Matthews in the centre.

Scrum half Frankie Murray and fly half Jamie Green operated like a well oiled machine with powerful and accurate touch kicks from Green time and again putting Irish back down field.

Sutton heavily regarded as underdogs actually dominated the opening phases of play and after 15 minutes took the lead with a penalty kicked by Murray.

The game then wavered up and down the pitch but a period of Irish pressure just on half an hour saw centre Liam Prescott level the score with a penalty and the sides turned round 3-3 at the break.

Sutton despite being down to 14 men after half time, Sheppard having been shown the yellow card in the last minute of the first half, took the game to Irish and a second penalty kicked by Murray after four minutes restored their lead.

It was short lived however as Prescott kicked a penalty for Irish three minutes later.

From then on defences ruled, Whitaker came close for Sutton taking the ball at pace he broke 3 tackles but was stopped 3m short, the Irish started to rumble forward with a pretty effective rolling maul but Sutton always had the answer and with some solid defence, especially one huge tackle from wing Andy Nichols which flattened his much bigger opposite number who appeared clear for the line, Sutton held on for the draw.

Sutton host runaway league leaders Tobridge Juddian on Saturday (3pm).