Braintree 10 | 55 Colchester A XV

Having won their opening three games of the season, Colchester’s 3rd XV travelled to Braintree to face their reserve side for a third away fixture in four, knowing they needed a bonus-point win to stay ahead of the chasing pack.

From the whistle, Colchester looked dominant and worked through their phases into the Braintree 22. Looking likely to score early, Colchester then coughed up the ball into the hosts awaiting arms, who broke out to run in 70 metres for the first try of the game after only 3 minutes. This set the tone for the opening quarter, the score seesawing either way with another Braintree try sandwiched between scores from Captain Sam Hopkins after a scrum and hooker David Lawrence from a penalty close to the line. However, at 10-12 after 26 minutes Colchester were not to relinquish the lead again. With wily campaigners Stanley Wong, Craig Swan, Steve McManamon and Andrew Sutcliffe complimenting Lawrence in the tight five, Colchester’s scrum began to dominate, marching the Braintree pack backwards at every opportunity. From this platform, Fullback Ben Ward scythed through to score on the right to notch Colchester’s third. The remaining 10 minutes of the half produced two further scores to the visitors, Centre Reuben Shepherd scoring a brace to have the bonus point secured by the break.

From the off, Colchester turned the screws with an excellently taken lineout close to the Braintree line; Flanker Sam Harman crashing over to push the score out to 10-34. At this point, Braintree were beginning to run out of gas and the Blacks were beginning to gallop. Hot on the attack again in the home teams red-zone, Fly-Half James Peace nudged through a probing chip which bobbled around and up off-of a hapless defender; Pearce then pulled off a miracle ricochet catch off his bootlaces to dance through and score under the posts. Converting his own try, the score was now into the 40’s. With Colchester also now dominating the breakdown – thanks in part to the excellent work of Openside Josh McAvoy – Braintree had no answer, and from a kick chase they accidentally took out Pearce in the air to be reduced to 14 men for the remainder of the game. This last 10 minutes saw Colchester ruthlessly exploit this advantage with the destructive Harman crashing over again for his second, and Sutcliffe finishing off a lovely sweeping move on the right to secure a well-deserved try of his own. The final score 10-55 to Colchester.

Alex Lacey