Colchester’s National League Rugby survival hopes took a significant knock as they lost 34-40 in a closely fought 11-try thriller to relegation rivals Oxford Harlequins.

The Blacks are now 17 points adrift of safety with eight matches to play, but the way they fought to the final whistle suggests all is not lost.

Regardless of the result, it was a red-letter day for captain and club legend Danny Whiteman, making his 300th first team appearance for his hometown club, with a series of presentations taking place after the match.

Back rower Whiteman started the game at the unfamiliar position of hooker as a freakish spate of injuries and illness meant five front rowers were unavailable.

The visitors were three tries up inside 20 minutes. Willo Bicknell opened the scoring from a series of penalties, a backs move led to Adam Field crossing on the right then Harry Burn got the third from a line-out drive.

Colchester belatedly got into the game on 25 minutes. Louis Martin brought the ball out of defence; Ross Taylor then took it on before Will Blakemore fed Gabe Jones to cross.

The hosts had a second moments later as Ashton Webb touched down in the left corner from another Blakemore break following good work by Connor O’Reilly.

Turning round 10-19 down, Colchester were quick out of the blocks as Gabe Jones burst through within a minute of the restart, his conversion reducing the Quins lead to two points.

Oxford had their bonus point when Fin Boarder touched down from a maul, and the hooker quickly had his second as Colchester conceded a series of penalties in the red zone.

Colchester banked their bonus point on 67 minutes as the impressive Martin scored from a patient build-up, Jones adding the conversion. But when Jamie Whitwell scored again with 10 minutes remaining, Quins were seemingly out of sight.

Colchester, however, weren’t finished and they hit back with Jones’s hat-trick try four minutes from time. And when Joel Hopkins was binned for a high shot on replacement Alex Gerard, Fin Creighton’s long-range penalty earned Colchester a second bonus point.

“Close but no cigar,” said head coach Mike Haywood. “The guys put in so much effort. When we’re firing on all cylinders in attack, we’re hard to deal with. But when we’re not in shape we’re struggling to put things on the pitch.

“I can’t praise the players enough. They’re working so hard.”

In the end the day belonged to captain Danny, who was presented with a framed shirt in the packed-out clubhouse after the game.

“The reason I do it is because I enjoy it,” said the triple centurion. “To have all the people I’ve spent years playing with here to support me means the world really. To have my family and friends all here cheering on is brilliant.”

Haywood lauded his skipper’s “unbelievable achievement” particularly after asking him to start at hooker for only the second time in his long career.

Fittingly Danny was named player-of-the-match by sponsors Stour Valley, while the coach’s award, courtesy of The Lexden Crown and Amnesia Flowers, went to Louis Martin.

Next up for Colchester is Saturday’s re-arranged fixture at Guernsey, storms permitting.

The Ravens lost 25-12 at Ely and drop to eighth in their league. The 3s and 4s matches were both conceded as home wins for Colchester.