Colchester knew that this game against fellow strugglers West Norfolk was crucial, and their task was made harder by a number of front line players being unavailable.

West Norfolk put Colchester under pressure from the beginning, but mistakes by both sides made for a scrappy game.

At 22 minutes the dangerous looking West Norfolk centre found a gap in the Colchester defence, and although he was brought down a metre short, the ball was popped to their flanker for an easy score, converted by the fly-half.

Ten minutes later the Kings Lynn side created an overlap for the left wing to score in the corner, and within two minutes their number one went over to make the half-time score 19-0.

Most of the Colchester players and the large home crowd still thought a win was possible, and the All Blacks had their best spell of the game spending 20 minutes encamped in the West Norfolk half, and eschewing kickable penalties for the chance of seven points.

It was the West Norfolk centre who delivered the body blows that were to sink Colchester with two converted tries in the space of five minutes.

Colchester were awarded a consolation penalty try with ten minutes to go, but by then the cause was lost.

Colchester will need to win at least two of their three remaining games to give themselves a chance of staying in the London Leagues.

Other results

Maldon II 20 Colchester Ravens 13, Thurston II 0 Colchester A 62, Colchester Cavaliers 53 Witham II 19, U17s 22 London Irish U17s 31, U15s 19 Newmarket U15s 5, Diss U14s 0 U14s 29, Diss U13s 12 U13B 12, U12s 49 Hertford U12s 12, Hertford U11s 28 U11s 5, Hertford U10s 10 U10s 10, Epping U10s 15 U10s 15, Hertford U9s 5 U9s 5, Epping U9s 0 U9s 50, Hertford U8s 10 U8s 10, Epping U8s 5 U8s 10, Hertford U7s 10 U7s 0, Epping U7s 10 U7s 15.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.