1st Place Decider

Colchester hosted Sudbury for their first match of the season. With the teams holding 1st and 2nd place in EC3 league it was set to be a good clash between the teams.

Sudbury started well and capitalised on Colchester's lack of pace and wide open play, this ended in Sudbury full back claiming an early try which was converted. Injury in the front row required Graham MacCallum to come on, and instantly linked in with the winger to offload and allow Colchester's first try of the game after 30 minutes. This was quickly followed by a number 8 chip and chase which set the full back up for another try minutes later.

Colchester finally got into the game just before the half time break and had been lucky not to be punished by Sudbury earlier on. A good driving scrum and fast hands out wide ended with Chris Daniels scoring an unconverted try. Colchester lost focus in defence for the last few minutes of the half, allowing the Sudbury full back to score a try after breaking the Colchester defence with ease.

The second half started with a few replacements and a show of skill from Kieran Payne to take the pack up to the 5m line. Continued pressure allowed Colchester's full back to cross the line again and this time, add the extras.
A penalty in front of the posts gave Colchester another 3 points against Sudbury who were struggling to keep up with the continued pressure. To their credit, Sudbury worked hard at the breakdown and pushed Colchester into giving away simple penalties, most of which they couldn't convert into points.

With the final substitutions made by both teams, the tempo showed no sign of slowing. The ref played advantage for long enough to let number 8 David Lawrence over for another try. This was quickly followed by a cheeky fly half pass to allow Adam Randle over on the wing.

Jez Castle with a good drive up the middle of the field ended up with a hand-off and off-load to KP to add another score.

Colchester were lucky the opposition didn't capitalise on a slow start, but the continued efforts in training paid off and allowed the team to stay top of the table.