Travelling to West Sussex with a restructured team due to many players being injured, Colchester were beaten by six tries to two. The Blacks badly lost the first half but rallied too late, matching Chichester after the interval, two tries apiece.

This disappointing result means that Colchester have everything to do in the second half of the season to survive in this league.
The hosts kicked off and within ten minutes their forwards scored from a catch and drive after a lineout close to the visitors’ line. Their scrum half ,Henry Anscombe, missed the conversion but would go on to add the extras to all of Chichester’s other tries in the game.
After 15 minutes Don Farmer, their inside centre, clashed with his opposite number, George Liversidge, who had to leave the pitch to return later. Gregor Irvine came of the Black bench to replace him and the game resumed.

Soon after this incident Chichester attacked up the left and No 8 Chris Johnson went over for a try. The pressure was telling on the visitors and before half time they conceded two more tries scored by lock Aaron Davies and right wing Harry Seaman.
Later Colchester were awarded a penalty for a Chichester player not releasing and good work by scrum half Harry Barton put flanker Joe Flexman into space. He offloaded to fly half Matt Barnes whose crossfield kick found left wing James Crozier who scored an excellent try in the corner just before the break.

Starting the second half down 26-5 Colchester started to fight back with No 7 Danny Whiteman to the fore mopping up loose ball in the rucks. Too often, though, the Blacks tackles were too high and balls were being dropped at crucial moments. On the plus side, props Joe McMillan and Alex Mitchell were more than matching their opponents in the scrum. After a further five minutes the Sussex side quickly moved the ball along their backline to wing Matt Woodhouse to score a textbook try in the corner and stretch their lead to 33-5.
Colchester tried substitutions to up their game and the additional pressure caused Chichester to start giving away penalties. The scrums were often collapsing and, eventually, the referee yellow carded Ben Deavall, Chichester’s loose head prop, for pulling down the front row. Colchester opted for a scrum and won it for Barton to pass to fullback Damien Brambley who outpaced the defence to score in the corner bringing the score to 33-10.

As the game drew to a close, Colchester’s right wing Jordan Fenton had a couple of strong runs into Chichester territory but to no avail. Later his opposite number , Seaman, ran in for the final try of the contest making Chichester convincing winners and leaving Colchester sitting near the foot of the league and still looking to recover their form.