Colchester’s preparations for the new rugby season take a significant step up this week with less than a month to go to the start of the new league campaign.

Having been promoted back to National League Rugby last season, it’s been a busy summer at the club, with player recruitment and tweaks to the coaching team.

The squad has been back in training for several weeks, as the coaches and strength and conditioning staff put the players through their paces during one of the hottest summers on record.

With the first National 2 East league match, away to London club Barnes, looming large on September 5th, the next few weeks will be all about fine-tuning.

Saturday sees the performance squad of around 40 players involved in a three-way series of matches involving both the 1st and 2nd teams playing Cambridge RFC and Hertford RFC. This is now confirmed to take place at Ravan Park, although timings are yet to be confirmed, so keep an eye on the club’s social media channels.

The following week Colchester are due to entertain Regional 1 South East outfit Letchworth at Raven Park (August 22nd kick-off 4pm).

Head coach Mike Haywood has been busy on the recruitment front, with more than a dozen new players added to the squad.

Included among them are some familiar faces: Harry Bureau and Ashton Webb return after spells with fellow Nat 2 East side Oundle, while experienced back-row Matt Wagstaff joins the club after eight years at Southend.

Centre Findlay Gilmour, who played some games for Colchester at the back end of last season, has also put pen to paper.

Mike has appointed co-captains this season, with Cam Kerr – who led the side to promotion last season – joined in skipper duties by scrumhalf Jack Daly.

“It’s been a really exciting summer,” said Haywood. “We felt we needed to bring in some new guys to create some more competition and strengthen the depth going back into National 2. In training so far, they’ve been pushing each other, and the competition has been great.”

This season the club has created a performance squad of around 50 players, from which the players for first and second team matches will be picked. The development squad is for players coming through, and from which the 3s and 4s teams will be selected.

“We want to drive standards throughout the club and make sure the guys who get the opportunity to play National League rugby have an understanding of what that looks like, and from the club’s point of view, to grow standards throughout.”

Haywood is very aware that when the team last played in the fourth tier of English rugby the squad was perhaps not as prepared as it could have been.

“We know when we went into National 2 previously, we were slightly under-gunned. Our big thing this season is about being fit and fast. Playing on 4G (artificial grass pitch) suits that.

“We’ve got an exciting young group with a mixture of older boys within that. We want to play a good brand of rugby, we want to play fast, we want to move the ball and that’s essentially what our pre-season has been based around.”

The new-look National 2 East includes four teams Colchester have not previously encountered: Esher, Leicester Lions, London Welsh and Jersey, meaning there are two trips to the Channel Islands this season with Guernsey also amongst the fixtures.

Mike says everyone will get an opportunity to play. “They’ve just got to take their chance. I’m a big believer in selecting the guys that are playing the best.

“It’s a long season, and if we go back to our previous time in National 2, we went through 50-odd players. It may be disappointing for some players at the start, but they are going to get an opportunity throughout the season, no doubt.”

So, is the squad better prepared for National League rugby than last time?

“I hope so! We are very lucky with the group we retained from last year. We’ve had a couple of guys leave and one long-term injury. Other than that, it’s a pretty consistent group.

“It’s a demanding league. We’ve got to travel a bit more, the rugby is better, the physicality is more, preparation needs to be better.

“But we’re all just excited to have another go at it and show what Colchester Rugby Club can do.”

By Edward Marriage