Medway ended a run of three successive defeats with an impressive 22-12 win at home to Sudbury in Regional 1 South East.

The visitors began the afternoon second in the table, but a try from prop Dan Huntley and 17 points from the boot of Daniel Harvey were enough for victory - Medway's second of the new campaign.

After three successive losses coach Taff Gwilliam admitted the win came at the right time.

“This is a fine, much needed, victory against a very skilful team," he said.

"Coming off a couple of hard-to-take losses this is a timely boost for the boys. They did great."

Medway gave a debut to new signing Freddie Hayes on the wing, while Jack Cohen returned at full-back following illness with Jack Nickalls playing his first game at hooker.

The hosts played into the strong breeze for the first half, but were first to score with just eight minutes on the clock.

Sudbury infringed at a breakdown and under penalty advantage Harvey put a kick in behind the defence. Huntley charged through and regathered the ball to score under the posts, with Harvey adding the extras.

The scores were level when a series of penalties on the Medway line in the scrummage saw Richard Petch yellow carded and at the next scrum a penalty try was awarded to Sudbury.

Despite being down to 14 men Medway defended well, and they retook the lead in the 35th minute when a rare foray into the visitors' half won a kickable penalty, Harvey making no mistake.

For the the second half Maik Timmerman replaced Petch in the front row and on 48 minutes Medway skipper Tom Beaumont suffered a hamstring injury, Michael Fankah coming on.

However Gwilliam's side increased their lead when Sudbury were penalised for going in at the side of a ruck, Harvey again scoring from the tee.

Poor defending allowed the visitors to close the gap, though, as Medway cleared their lines but the kick chase was poor. Sudbury were clinical on the counter and excellent running and handling saw them go over out wide.

Henry Kenny, Mo Pangarker, Jordan Stubbington, Ben Dance and Lewis Stimpson worked hard to keep the defensive line intact, while Fankah was excellent and on 66 minutes he won another penalty - Harvey increasing the lead to four points.

Some excellent running from Cohen almost sealed the game but two more Harvey penalties did so, the last act of the match a long-range effort to deny Sudbury a losing bonus point.

The win sees Medway ninth in the table. They return to league action on October 15 at home to Colchester.