On a dry but windy Surrey pitch visitors Colchester played against the wind in the first half and turned around at the interval down by three tries to one. To their credit they fought back in the second half to gain a slim lead but then threw the game away by giving away too many penalties at crucial stages which the hosts capitalised on and won the game.

The Blacks squad was again much changed from the previous week with Alex Mitchell coming in at prop, David Higgins returning at fly half and the Pickett brothers back in the pack. Newcomer Ethan Hughes joined Adam Cook and Alfie Walsh on the bench.

Within ten minutes Sutton pushed forward from a stolen lineout and scored under the posts. Their fullback Sam Hurley made sure of the conversion, the start of a good display by him.

Ten minutes later Sutton used the wind advantage to move forward to near the Colchester line. They turned over the ball at the defence’s scrum and their No 8 Matt Whitaker charged over for a converted try. Colchester then raised their game with strong running by their backs particularly centre Damien Brambley and fullback Brett Cutbush and stout defences by their back row against Sutton’s aggressive half backs and centres.

Lead by skipper Liam Pickett the Blacks worked their way into the opposing half and gained a scrum ten metres out. The won ball was moved to mobile prop Joe Mcmillan who crashed over for a converted try. Unfortunately, Colchester were soon down to fourteen men when scrum half Matt Wadling was yellow carded by referee Ben Wilde and Brett Cutbush had to take his place for ten minutes.

In the dying moments of the first half Hurley showed his pace when the ball was moved along Sutton’s back line for him to score and convert a try bringing the interval score to 21-7.

Not long into the second half, Fly half Higgins sent a howitzer kick in to Sutton’s half. Damien Brambley broke through the defence and put wing James Crozier in for an unconverted try.

Colchester’s coaches Nic Lloyd and Lee Soper added their substitutes during the second half and these changes seemed to inject some belief into their players and before long good interpassing lead to Sam Brown setting up wing James Crozier for a try in the corner which Higgins did well to convert. Shortly after this Higgins was successful with a penalty putting the visitors into the lead for the first time 21 -22.

But Colchester’s lead lasted only a few minutes as the heavy Sutton pack worked their way up the pitch then moved the ball left for their winger to score a converted try in the corner.

With the score now at 28-22 the Blacks threw everything into their last quarter of the game but Sutton’s defence held and in the final moments the hosts won a penalty when a Colchester player was adjudged to be off his feet. Hurley converted bringing his personal tally to 16 points and leaving Colchester without even the consolation of a losing bonus point.