Mersea Rhinos 10 | 19 Colchester A XV

Mersea Island was the A XV’s destination of week three in Eastern Counties 1 (South) with the visitors knowing they were going to the seaside for an old-fashioned arm wrestle, and on the basis of the first 30 minutes this rang true. Colchester had six changes to the starting line up which laid waste to Halstead the previous week; all who stood up against a very experienced Mersea team.

Although Colchester maintained the majority of territory whilst playing into a strong westerly breeze in the first half, it was mistakes that tended to slow down their game, coupled with a constant stoppage of play due to Mersea injuries. These breaks allowed a visibly tiring home side the opportunity to rejuvenate their big forwards which nulled the advantage Colchester had in fitness. However, Colchester’s territorial advantage finally paid off on 28 minutes when Sam Harman crashed over from a penalty on the left for the first points of the match. Co-captain Patrick Gardiner converted a difficult conversion to give Colchester a 0-7 lead. Interestingly, Mersea, with the wind at their backs, didn’t use the kick chase effectively throughout the half; then with 5 minutes to the break, they were deep in their own third and kicked down the throat of Colchester Fullback Sam Slaven, who countered down the left to score the visitors second. Gardiner again added the extras and Colchester took a 0-14 lead into the break

From the restart, Mersea fluffed their lines and Colchester immediately had a line out opportunity only metres from the home try line. From this set-piece, Colchester executed a lovely move which resulted in Gary Palmer going in untouched for the blacks third try. 0-19 to the visitors. At this point, one could excuse Mersea from dropping their heads and allowing Colchester to take the game away from them; however this was not the case and, with credit to the home side, Mersea changed their tack and started moving the ball through the backs to good effect. Hot on the attack in Colchester’s half, there was an unfortunate clash at a ruck and Palmer was sent to the sideline for a 10-minute breather. Colchester were now down to seven in the scum and had to dig deep to resist the Mersea onslaught. On 60 minutes, Mersea finally broke through what had been a solid and organised Colchester defence to register their first points of the match. With Colchester now back to fifteen, the last quarter mostly belonged to the visitors, who had a few opportunities to score their fourth try; however Mersea defence and handling errors scuppered this chance, and it was the visitors who scrambled downfield to score their second. The game-ending 10-19, with Colchester making it three-from-three and heading into next weeks game away to Braintree on top of the table.