Colchester’s first season in the fourth tier of English rugby may have ended in relegation, but there were enough positives for the club to look to the future with optimism.

The stats don’t lie. Three wins and a draw from 26 matches was never going to be enough. But a haul of 15 try bonus points and five losing bonus points shows the team remained competitive throughout the campaign.

When the team were promoted to Nat 2 East, no-one at the club had any illusions about the challenge. And sure enough, the gulf between regional rugby and the National Leagues turned out to be substantial.

“As a team we understood it was going to be a tough season in terms of the level we needed to get to,” said head coach Mike Haywood. “And obviously the start we had wasn’t the best. But for the guys to put in the effort week-in, week-out has been brilliant.”

It’s a view shared by club chairman, Karl O’Brien.

“I think it’s been a really big learning curve for us,” said Karl. “We knew it would be a big step up, probably bigger than we anticipated.

“However, I think we’ve acquitted ourselves well throughout. We’ve never been completely outplayed but the other teams just having that extra bit of quality made the difference.”

It is probably understandable that the heaviest defeat of the season came in the first match, as Colchester suffered something of a baptism of fire with a 53-13 defeat at Canterbury.
That match also saw what was to become a recurring and very unwelcome theme.

Just 15 minutes into the season Alex Grey, newly-signed from Pontypool and starting the match as captain, went off with a horrible knee injury which – together with a second serious injury midway through the season – was to side-line him for virtually the whole campaign.

Grey’s bad luck was sadly not to be a one-off. Such was the horrendous run of injuries as the season progressed that at one point around 20 first team regulars were unavailable.

No fewer than 55 players have featured in the 26 matches, and when Colchester played

Canterbury in the last match of the season, just three of the starting XV had also played in that reverse fixture on the first day of the season.

Colchester waited 10 matches before registering their first victory, by which time Haywood had taken over from Craig Burrows and Danny Whiteman was back as captain.

The 28-23 win at Sevenoaks in November looked like a change of fortune, but significantly they were unable to win their next two matches against sides which would end up also scrapping for survival, Worthing and Havant.

The re-arranged match at Guernsey brought the second win of the season, and two weeks later the home fans at last had something to cheer as Westcombe Park were beaten in a high-scoring thriller, 45-41.

But with the injury list lengthening, the writing was on the wall and Colchester’s relegation was confirmed with defeat at home to Guernsey.

Given the number of players used, it’s hardly surprising that the 93 tries scored were shared around by 34 players (plus one penalty try).

Francois Rossouw tops the charts for the second successive season with nine tries, one more than Gabe Jones whose goal-kicking makes him the team’s leading points scorer.

Given the churn of players, honourable mention must go to Cam Kerr, who was the only player to feature in all 26 matches. Not bad for a blindside flanker with an apparent disregard for his personal welfare.

“Yes, we do go down,” reflected Mike, “but we’ve had a hell of a season. We’ve got a group here who’ve battled every single week.

“Some of the guys have come through the system at Colchester and this is the highest they’ve ever played. In National 2 they’ve played against guys who’ve got one hundred caps for Harlequins, and players dropping down from Leicester Tigers.

“Our players have fronted up and done a fantastic job.”

Chairman Karl shares the coach’s optimism going forward.

“The strength in depth might not quite be there yet, however everyone that’s come through from the seconds and even through from the colts’ team have been absolutely fantastic and we’re so pleased that they’ve been able to step up and I think it’s very encouraging for the future.”

Stand-by for news of significant recruitment as planning for the new campaign moves into top gear!