COLCHESTER’S Ollie Pickett has grabbed national recognition for a great try.

His charge from inside his own half during Colchester’s meeting with Romford & Gidea Park secured February’s Samsung Try of the Month competition.

The second-half score was chosen as the winner by former England and British and Irish Lions second row Martin Bayfield.

Colchester Head Coach Anthony O’Riordan said: “One thing we’ve been working on all season is not forcing a score but building one.

“Rather than relying on one-upmanship, we’ve been trying to bring together phases of play to build a score and I think that’s why the try stuck out for us.

“The way it was executed was quite seamless, it looked really natural and fluid.”

He added: “Oliver’s a very influential player in the side, and a hard-hitting rugby player.

“He creates so many opportunities and he’s selfless. He offloads the ball and sets people up as opposed to taking the credit himself and putting the ball down under the posts.

“So it’s nice for him to be rewarded for all the graft he’s put in.”

The competition is open to all levels of rugby below the Greene King IPA Championship, all ages, men and women, boys and girls, touch, tag or contact rugby.

Each month a legend of the game will judge the competition, with the winning club getting £1,000-worth of Samsung products. The person who enters the try will win the latest Samsung handset.

And it has also been a good couple of weeks for the Colchester club as a whole as their second, third and fourth teams all gained promotion from their respective leagues.

Also the first team’s 64-26 win at Old Priorians two week’s ago saw them break the 1,000 points scored barrier and accrue the most points of any team, at any level, in the country this season with 1,007.

The London League division one north leaders entertain tenth-placed Thurrock this weekend in their on-going bid to win promotion to the national leagues. With four matches to go they are still two points ahead of second-placed Eton Manor, who they will meet on the last day of the season in what his shaping up to be a promotion showdown.

O’Riordan said: “The next four games are huge for us.

“The whole season has been huge but the remaining games are massive.

“Thurrock are no pushovers and we will concentrate on the job in hand.

“We used to have a two-week cycle to prepare players for the games but we are now doing it on a week-by-week basis.

“We are not even talking about the end of the season in our camp – just focusing on the next game.”