Colts book place in the last eight of cup (From Gazette)

Colts book place in the last eight of cup

5:20pm Tuesday 24th February 2009 in Rugby

COLCHESTER COLTS 40 BISHOP’S STORTFORD 5 National Cup round five COLCHESTER Rugby Club’s under-19s booked their place in the last eight of the National Colts Cup for the second year running.

They produced a totally dominant display to set up a home quarter-final with Redruth on March 15 by eliminating a strong Bishop’s Stortford side who possess an outstanding National Cup record.

Stortford were Cup winners in 2006, semi-finalists in 2007, Plate winners in 2005 and Plate runners-up last year, but Colchester inflicted their first defeat since the season proper began.

Nic Lloyd, who is one of the colts side’s coaches, said: “It was a great performance, probably one of our better ones of the season.

“Bishop’s Stortford are a very strong team and have only lost to us in a trial game before this game this season and their recent record in the National Cup is second to none.

“It is great to have a home tie as last year we got ambushed away and that is the only game we have lost in two years.

“Individually there are some exceptional kids there.

“We have a whole spread across the ages from under-17 to under-19 and a lot of them have been together since they were in the under-17s .“Without putting the mockers on us, we have an exceptional chance to go all the way as any team that beat us has to be outstanding.”A 6-0 early lead was extended when full-back Chris Withers latched on to a brilliant backline move to bamboozle the opposition and put winger Drew Groves over in the corner.

Higgins’ excellent conversion saw Colchester lead 13-0.

Shortly after, Withers again burst on to another backline foray to chip the last defender and see Drew Groves touch down wide out.

With minutes to go in the half, a set move then saw centre Jimmy Gardiner cut the opposition to shreds before stepping the full-back to score under the posts.

It was 25-0 to Colchester with seconds to go in the half, but the visitors made their first lapse just before the whistle.

The kick-off looked to have been knocked forward by Stortford but it was not picked up by the officials, who had an otherwise excellent match, and, upset by the miss, Colchester gave away two silly penalties in quick succession to allow Stortford an easy score for 25-5 at the interval.

Determined to make up for that error, Colchester began the second half at a furious pace.

Within minutes they had made a scorching break and with a try appearing certain, a Stortford player killed the ball.

A quick tap saw Drew Groves over the line, but play was brought back as the referee sin-binned the Stortford player.

Opting to run at every opportunity, Colchester made several length-of-the-field breaks and this lead to the best try of the season by Ollie White.

Great interplay by centres Jones and Gardiner, Withers, scrum-half Lewis Groves and flanker Dan Whiteman was finished by White.

Another similar effort began after a typical forward charge from captain James Mitchell and quick hands and great finishing saw Drew Groves score his hat-trick.

Higgins’ conversion made it 37-5 and despite all seven Colchester substitutes being put on, the momentum continued and a late penalty by Higgins made the end score a 40-5 thrashing.