Guildford RFC 33 Colchester 1st XV 20

Their subsequent defeat confirms their relegation which is sad especially when many of their games this season have been close losses. The team was unchanged from the one that had put up such a spirited display against second-placed Wimbledon a fortnight earlier although hooker Alex Rayment was unavailable.

Guildford kicked off into the hands of veteran lock Eli Castle and this physical encounter began. Within minutes prop Jerone Awesu was yellow-carded for a high tackle on Guildford’s scrum half and left the field of play. Guildford worked their way into Colchester’s half and, following a scrum, No 8 Joe Garner powered over for an unconverted try. Later wing James Crozier missed a penalty kick as Awesu rejoined the game.

Making good use of a following wind, Guildford advanced again. Black’s prop, Joe McMillan, made decent headway through the middle supported by his fellow forwards but the referee awarded a penalty against them that home fly half, Brad Smith, booted into touch, the lineout was won and the ball moved swiftly to right wing Nick Clarke who scored in the corner.

He scored again later during a bizarre passage of play. Colchester were pressing forwards through energetic work by back rowers Ben Murphy and Danny Whiteman. Man of the match Brett Cutbush fed fly half David Higgins whose long pass was intercepted by a Guildford player who ran the length of the pitch only to be caught short by speedy centre Damien Brambley. However he managed to offload to Clarke who claimed his second try.

Shortly before half time Crozier converted a penalty putting Colchester on the scoreboard and bringing the score to 18-3. Substitutes Alfie Walsh, Liam Pickett and Brandon Fonalua had all joined in at this stage as injuries were picked up by various players.
Not long into the second half the host’s inside centre, Rory Andrews, dump tackled Crozier and left the game with a red card. A quick penalty by Higgins was followed by a brilliant individual try by Brambley who jinked his way through the defence to score by the posts. The scores were now 18-13 and Higgins nearly added some more with a long range penalty that just went wide.
After a further fifteen minutes of nip and tuck Hooper used his long legs to burst from the back of a scrum and score in the corner, a try that he successfully converted. Colchester drove back at Guildford and, following no less than four unsatisfactory scrums, were awarded a penalty try closing the gap to 25-20.

As the clock ran down Guildford’s Garner scored another try in the corner and Hooper wrapped up proceedings with a successful penalty kick to bring the Surrey side victory by 33 points to 22.

Steve Whiteman