COLCHESTER Rugby Club will be rekindling an old rivalry this weekend when the Mill Road side travel to Eton Manor in National League division three London and South East.

Colchester and Manor went head-to-head in the battle for automatic promotion from London League division one north last year.

After a season-long battle between the sides, who were the top two all along, it came down to a last day battle between them.

It ended in a draw, which was enough to earn Colchester promotion against the only side that had beaten them during 2014-2015.

Manor have struggled so far in the National League, after going up via the play-offs, and have yet to win a game. In their earlier encounter this season, Colchester took a 26-8 home win.

Colchester head coach Anthony O’Riordan said: “We have targeted Eton Manor as a win.

“Out of all the teams in the division we know what it is like to play them.

“But going down to their place, in this kind of weather, it is going to be a difficult contest.

“There are no easy games and we are going to treat it like a league final.

“We broke that historic not beating Eton Manor record earlier in the season. If we play as well as we can then I think we can win the game.”

Colchester will be looking to build on their 19-18 win against Chichester last weekend.

The victory, their fifth of the season, ended a six-match losing streak for O’Riordan’s side.

But the coach knew that his side would be facing a tough time during that period of the season, their first in the National Leagues.

He said: “We knew that the previous six games were going to be a difficult run of matches against the top sides.

“This is year one for us in this league. Coming in we knew that this was going to be a difficult time for us but, hopefully, now we have a run of games that should be good for us.

“Hopefully, now we can apply the things we have been working on in training into the games.

“It’s difficult sometimes against top, fast-paced teams.

“Players can get nervous of trying new things and revert to type.

“But now we can get those things we are doing in training and put them into action on the pitch.

“I have said before, and I will stand by it, that we have been in many of the games, in a strictly purist way, the better rugby playing side. We just have to translate that now into the scoreline.”