Sutton & Epsom were unable to maintain an outstanding first-half performance as they went down to defeat by National Three London & South-East leaders Jersey on Saturday.

A 10-8 half-time advantage offered Sutton a glimmer of hope of a major league shock - skipper and fly-half Steve Munford leading by supreme example with dozens of tackles and an aggressive home performance forcing Jersey into mistakes.

But Jersey changed their style after the break, using their big forwards to hit the defence at pace.

Centre Sam Tuia and captain lock Talite Vaiolite were influential in leaving Sutton’s defence tackled out by the hour and they hosts were unable to prevent Jersey from running in four tries.

Sutton had Jersey on their heels from the start with the back row Scott Wallbank, Simon Hough and Ian White unsettling the visitors.

This early pressure reaped its reward when Munford kicked a penalty after two minutes, although Jersey fly-half Tom Turner levelled the scores a few minutes later with a penalty against the run of play.

Sutton maintained the pressure with flanker Scott Wallbank going close shortly after.

Then wing Andy Nicholls pounced on loose ball when a Jersey pass went astray, made the initial break and then passed to lock Jason Ford who pounded 30m up-field before passing inside for centre Liam Brown to hand off one tackler go in behind the posts for his first try in the Sutton strip. Munford converted to stretch Sutton’s lead.

Shaken by this, Jersey pounded at Sutton and, following a 5m scrum, they set up a powerful rolling maul.

Sutton desperately held them back but, with their defence sucked in, the ball went out to the left and was a walk in for Jersey centre Donovan Sanders. The conversion was missed and at half time led 10-8.

Jersey changed their game after the restart, using their strength to smash into Sutton’s defence.

Slowly, Sutton began to crumble and, 10 minutes into the half, Turner’s penalty gave the visitors a one-point lead.

Then, Jersey’s forward power began to tell against a side worn down by the number of tackles they had been forced to make.

Jersey camped in Sutton’s line and, on the eighth attempt, replacement flanker George Dixon was driven in from a metre. Turner converted.

Jersey’s centre Sam Tuia came more and more into the came running from deep and taking the ball flat he carved holes through Sutton and put flanker Kern Yates over next to the posts. Turner converted.

The visitors scored again shortly after when another massive rolling maul saw them make good ground and with a suspicion of truck and trailer their flanker Graham Bell broke away to score wide on the left.

To their credit, Sutton came back and narrowly missed scoring themselves.

But, when the attack broke down, Tuia sped out of defence put a kick ahead into acres of space behind Sutton’s defence, prop Sean Kent performed a near miracle by winning the race to the ball but was nailed a metres from Sutton’s line buried under Jersey players who came up with the ball and their number eight Nick Trower scored in the corner.

Sutton, who short of several players this week, can take huge encouragement from this performance against the side which is head and shoulders above any other in the league.

Sutton hope for a league double when they visit Hertford this Saturday (2.30pm).

Meanwhile, the club host a day in celebration of former women’s captain Andrea Hinton on Saturday, February 19.

A match between Sutton & Epsom Ladies and Newbury Ladies will be followed by Sutton’s league match with Haywards Heath, with the proceeds going to Breast Cancer Research in memory of Hinton, who died of leukaemia on February 12 last year.