Colchester put in a much better performance this Saturday and notched up 9 tries in an excellent display of running rugby. The new look team included Rhys Hartley and Eli Castle in the forwards and Joe Flexman and George Liversidge in the backs. This result puts Colchester back to fourth in the league and brought back the smiles to coaches, players and spectators alike.

The key to the victory was the solid display by the forwards and the talent in the backs.

The visitors kicked off and before long a high kick with wind assistance from Letchworth’s fly half was fielded by fullback Will Brown who came back at speed, fed flanker Dan Whiteman who passed to No 8 Ollie Pickett who dived over for an early try. Letchworth came back at the restart but their burly inside centre was well contained by Flexman. Indeed from one such turnover Pickett fed wing James Crozier who scored and converted an excellent try.

Later a swift blindside move by scrum half Matt Wadling saw him score in the corner. Colchester were now 19 points ahead and so the score remained until half time. Fly half Brett Cutbush made good use of the favourable wind in the second half and before long the Blacks won a penalty that Crozier converted taking the lead to 22 points.

The visitors raised their game and soon sprightly scrum half Chris Gibbs claimed an unconverted try. This setback seemed to stir Colchester and in the following 20 minutes they score three tries in quick succession with hooker Hartley claiming two and Liversidge one. The coaches made changes with Pickett on for flanker Joe Beckett and Dave Brennan on for Meads.

Unfortunately at a Letchworth lineout the Blacks gave away a penalty for having too many men in the line and were punished for this mistake when Letchworth scored shortly afterwards. However this did not herald a revival by the visitors. Instead, on his return to the pitch, winger Meads sped down the pitch and scored an excellent try under the posts. Not long after Cutbush broke through the opposition defence, ran fifty metres and offloaded to dynamo prop Joe McMillan who, amazingly, was on his shoulder and well placed to score in the corner.

At 53-12 Colchester’s lead looked unassailable yet they weren’t finished yet. In the dying moments of the game the ball was again moved to Crozier who ran fifty metres to score his second try which he then converted bringing the final score to 60-12. He deserves a special mention as his personal tally was 25 points as does man-of-the-match Rhys Hartley for a splendid all round game.
Steve Whiteman