Colchester Academy narrowly defeat Hadleigh

Colchester defeated Hadleigh in a hard fought game in the final round of group fixtures in the Eastern Counties Cup. The game was generally poor entertainment for the watching crowd with the ball largely being confined to midfield for long period of play. Hadleigh played to their strength throughout the game and greatly used their forwards to move the ball; a tactic that Colchester initially struggled to adapt to. With the home lineout misfiring badly, Colchester were starved of possession for long periods of play (especially in the fist half) and were fortunate to be on level terms at half time. The final score was a little harsh on Hadleigh who competed very well and perhaps deserved to get more out of the game.

The home side made a terrific start; Hadleigh knocking on the kick-off with subsequent quick ball releasing winger Chowa Chanda who powered through a number of tackles to be felled just short. From the following ruck, flanker Matt Hexley dived over to open the scoring. However, from this point on (and despite playing into the wind) Hadleigh dominated possession and territory and kept play more-or-less confined in the Colchester half of the pitch. Playing to their forward strength, Hadleigh pushed Colchester back in the scrum and greatly utilised "pick and go" tactics to move the ball whilst starving Colchester of any meaningful opportunities. Turnover at the Colchester scrum released the Hadleigh scrum-half who ran straight through the Colchester defence to score before the agile Hadleigh second row picked up loose ball to ran around the Colchester backline to extend the lead in the corner. Eventually, Colchester managed to move the ball into the Hadleigh half of the pitch and with a good piece of backline play, nippy winger Craig Doran equalised the scores with the last move of the half.
Half Time: Colchester 10 Hadleigh 10
The second half saw some improvement from Colchester with centre Will Blakemore becoming more involved. A line break from prop Troy Palmer developed play into the Hadleigh 22 before some slick hands released Chanda to give Colchester the lead out wide. Credit to Hadleigh who then pinned Colchester back close to their own line for a good period of time. Only stout defence, including the conceding of a number of penalties, kept out the away side. The pressure was relieved by a double movement by a Hadleigh forward who was perhaps unfortunate to be yellow carded for expressing his disagreement of the decision with the referee. Fly-half Rhys Smith and number 8 Zac Puckey both enjoyed breaks forward before winger Doran again showed his pace to beat his opponent on the outside and touch down in the corner. As the game drew to a close, Chanda again exploited a gap in the Hadleigh defence to race away to complete the scoring.
Full Time: Colchester 27 Hadleigh 10

Coach Sean O'Sullivan, whilst pleased with the result, highlighted the deficiencies of the performance, saying "the squad must adapt quicker to the changing game situation and employ better game management in a match that for long periods was not going our way. The players struggled to cope with the Hadleigh style of play and there is much to be done in training to improve our set pieces".