Colchester 1st XV 28 Amersham & Chiltern 20

Colchester travelled to Buckinghamshire to play Amersham & Chiltern one place below them at the bottom of the table.

This foot of the league clash was hard fought between two teams trying to salvage something from a difficult season. Eventually the visitors came out on top by four converted tries to the hosts’ two tries and two penalties.

Weather conditions were sunny at first but soon deteriorated as did the standard of play with both sides spilling balls and dropping passes in the wet. The scrums were even in the first half but the hosts’ tactic of wheeling the scrums after the interval backfired on them and led to Colchester’s match-winning try.

A & C kicked off and, before long, their nippy scrum half, Mike McDonald, converted a penalty, the first of many to be awarded by referee Jordan Wagner. From the restart the Blacks pressed forward, well marshalled by skipper Brett Cutbush. Eventually he gave a loop pass to Crozier who raced through to score. He converted this try as he was to do for all the visitors’ scores.
A & C soon came back and advanced towards Colchester’s line but stout defence by centres Te Albert and Brandon Fanolua kept them at bay whilst flankers Ben Murphy and Joe Beckett often moved the ball back upfield. Suddenly No 8 Danny Whiteman piled into an Amersham attacker, the ball was stolen and offloaded to Crozier who raced the length of the pitch to score a fine try bringing the score to 3-14.

Still A & C would not roll over and were soon back again down Colchester’s end winning a lineout and driving their pack forward to score a converted try leaving the half time score at 10-14. Minutes before Fanolua was yellow-carded for a high tackle and had to have ten minutes off the field. Colchester rang the changes during the interval with hooker Alfie Walsh coming on for Alex Rayment and flanker Joe Flexman on for Beckett.

From the restart A & C regained the lead when Cam McDonald jinked through the defence to score and convert a fine try. Then it was the Blacks’ turn to attack and before long prop Jerone Awesu powered over for a good try putting Colchester back in the lead 17-21.
From yet another penalty the home fly half, Andy Fluker, slotted three points closing the gap in scoring to one point. Black’s fly half David Higgins started to put in some long kicks that had A & C retreating. This, combined with injuries to two of their players, had A & C struggling and Colchester starting to dominate the last quarter of the game.

The scrums were wheeling around and had to be reset several times, mainly to the Blacks’ advantage as they slowly and surely advanced into the hosts’ half ending in Whiteman breaking from the back row to score the bonus point fourth try and seal the win.

Steve Whiteman