Colchester moved a step closer to promotion with a near-flawless 41-0 victory over North Walsham which keeps them six points clear at the top of the league with four matches to play.

Impressive as their seven tries were, head coach Mike Haywood was just as pleased with keeping the visitors scoreless, in what was the team’s first shut-out of the season.

“We’ve had a massive focus over the last couple of weeks on our defence. The lads never gave up, they kept fighting. To nil them is awesome.”

Indeed, Colchester forced their visitors to live off scraps, the Norfolk side rarely threatening the home line.

An express start saw Colchester two tries up inside four minutes and they never looked back from there.

From a line-out, the ball first went left, then switched right for Ardal Yallop to go over.

Two minutes later, Colchester were further ahead as Ed Parry – starting on the wing before later moving to scrumhalf and impressing in both positions – twisted over on the left.

Gabe Jones converted both tries to put the hosts 14-0 up, but the flyhalf was soon despatched to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on.

It’s no exaggeration to say Colchester should have had at least three more tries in an utterly dominant first half but for handling errors or turnovers close to the Walsham line.

Another chance saw Sean Bundy, making a welcome return after a long spell out injured, speeding down the left and lunging for the line, only to be adjudged just in touch.

Inevitably, Colchester soon had their third as they poured forward, Parry timing his pass to Jacob Bodkin to perfection as the wing looped round to score.

Back from the bin, Jones made a fine try-saving tackle to deny Walsham a rare chance from an interception, then the flyhalf came close at the other end after a good break and chip ahead, but the hosts had to be content with a 19-0 lead at half-time.

With Colchester picking off their opponent’s lineouts almost at will, it was more one-way traffic in the second half.

On 50 minutes Jones scooted over from a close-range tap penalty, in a training ground move which created a yawning gap.

Then it was the turn of the big men. First Charlie Friend crossed after a patient build-up, and minutes later Yallop had his second from a lineout.

Both teams were reduced to 14 players shortly after the hour following a bit of a stramash, but it was Colchester who had the final say.

Replacement Danny Whiteman broke strongly in midfield and found Francois Rossouw whose well-timed pass released Findlay Gilmour to complete the scoring.

Yallop was named player-of-the-match by sponsors Maguire Roofing, while Haywood had special praise for coaches’ player-of-the-match Parry, his award sponsored by the Lexden Crown.

Colchester’s only rivals for automatic promotion are second-placed Letchworth, who also had a bonus point win this weekend, beautifully setting up next week’s summit meeting between the sides.

“It’s going to be an exciting game, a big one,” said Haywood. “We’re just super excited to see what that holds. We’re going to prepare well this week and hopefully put in our best performance.”

The Ravens lost 31-14 at league leaders Bury St Edmunds 2s while the As won 29-12 at home to Woodbridge 2s to stay third in their league.