Colchester travelled to Eton Manor who, like the visitors, were unbeaten and lying one place behind second-placed Colchester. After a shaky start due to the squad being depleted by three, Colchester came out on top with a convincing display winning by 7 tries and a penalty to Manor's 3 tries and a penalty.

Hasty rearrangements at the start meant that flanker Dan Whiteman played at scrum half, Dan Brennan came off the bench to join the pack and substitute Jordan Milburn in his first team debut played on the wing and acquitted himself well. Ollie White joined skipper Liam Pickett at lock and No 8 Brock Price, back from injury, returned in style scoring a brace of tries.

Eton Manor kicked off and it wasn't long before their fly half converted a penalty to put them 3-0 in the lead. With Colchester still adjusting to the new alignment Manor attacked and put their No 10 over in the corner. Down 8-0 after only ten minutes, Colchester rallied and attacked from the restart moving into Manor's half. A good shove at the next scrum won them a penalty which fly half David Higgins converted to open their account.

This fast moving game played on artificial grass went from end to end over the next 20 minutes until Higgins rifled a long kick into Manor territory where their full back knocked on. From the back of the ensuing scrum Price crashed his way through the defence to put Whiteman over for a try to level the scores 8-8.

By this time the latecomers had arrived and Matt Wadling took up his position at scrum half. Before long Colchester turned over a Manor scrum due to the dominance of props James and Alex Mitchell and the ball was moved quickly left for centre Ben Murphy to score in the corner. Higgins added the extras putting the visitors ahead 8-15.

As the first half drew to a close Price claimed his first try putting the Blacks 8-15 ahead.

At the resumption of play excellent play got the ball to wing Dave Brennan twice for him to bag two tries and boost the score to 8-34 as well as claiming a bonus point. Manor came back after these reverses and got a forwards' try after a successful lineout of their own. Flanker Ollie Pickett picked up a yellow card for a dubious tackle so he went off and on came substitutes George Liversidge and Rhys Hartley. Manor took advantage of this temporary disruption of the Blacks and their No 21 broke through the defence to score a converted try.

Colchester had the last word however when good interplay by Price, Whiteman and Hartley ended with Price getting his third try in the corner and then, as the game drew to a close, Man-of-the-Match Wadling started a backs' move that ended with elusive full back Damien Brambley scoring the final try of this pulsating match. Next Saturday Colchester will play top-of-the table Rochford at home in a much anticipated match between the only two unbeaten teams in the league.

Steve Whiteman