Colchester made it 16 wins from 16 to stay on course for promotion with six matches to play but they were made to work hard for their 31-22 victory by an impressive Old Northamptonians side.

On a perfect day for rugby, Colchester fielded their strongest available team given six players were missing through injury or unavailability.

The visitors made the better start and could easily have gone ahead, but Colchester belatedly got into gear and scored on their first meaningful visit to opposition territory.

From a penalty, Ethan Cole broke and Francois Rossouw went close. Awarded another penalty, Colchester opted for a scrum from which Ben Kelland burst over, Gabe Jones adding the conversion.

Colchester were now in the ascendancy. Findlay Gilmour broke tackles to set up Jacob Bodkin, who found Jones in space on the left. The flyhalf dotted down and the hosts lead 12-0.

ONs were dangerous throughout, helped by a couple of impressive scrum wins, but handling errors cost them dear.

The try of the day came on the half hour, made better by the fact that the move took place directly in front of the vocal clubhouse crowd.

Bodkin collected the ball close to his own 22. The wing pinned back his ears and raced up field, Jack Daly keeping him company. The players exchanged passes twice, Daly eventually crossing for an eye-catching score.

From the restart, ONs got on the board through scrumhalf Tom Ritchings and came close to a second before half-time, the final pass just going astray.

Turning round 17-5 ahead, the hosts soon had their bonus point, Gilmour running 30 metres to the opposition line before Daly found Louis Martin on the left to score. Jones’s touchline conversion made it 24-5.

ONs got their second try as their impressive centres combined from a scrum, but Colchester were by now in the mood.

On the hour Colchester refreshed the front row, bringing on Alex Pybus and Callum Jeffery, the latter making his first appearance of the season after picking up a serious injury in pre-season.

Twice Martin and Cole combined on the left to go close before a lovely line from Haydn Sykes brought up try number five, converted by Jones, before the ever-reliable Daly made way for Ed Parry.

ONs finished strongly. First their replacement wing was adjudged to have squeezed over in the corner.

Then in a horribly messy finish with Colchester reduced to 13 - Callum Jeffery and Cole seeing yellow amid a flurry of penalties on their own line - the visitors scored their bonus point try.

It was not the ideal send-off for Cole, the lively wing playing his final game before departing for Australia.

Head coach Mike Haywood praised Old Northamptonians for how they approached the match.

“We’re at home, every team is coming after us, they want to be the team that beats Colchester this season.

“To get five points is brilliant and gives us that opportunity next match to get closer to getting promoted.

“We’re taking each game as they come, but if we perform, it leads to winning games.”

Ben Kelland was named player-of-the-match by sponsors Ellisons, while the coaches’ award, from The Lexden Crown, went to Danny Whiteman.

After a rest weekend, Colchester have a Valentines Day date away to third-placed Tring.

The Cavaliers celebrated a 53-5 win away to Bury St Edmunds 4s.