COLCHESTER set up a mouth-watering home showdown with leaders Rochford this weekend following a convincing 46-20 victory at previously unbeaten Eton Manor, writes STEVE WHITEMAN.

The hosts went into the game sitting just one place behind second-placed Blacks, in London One North.

But after a shaky start due to the squad being depleted by three, Colchester won by seven tries and a penalty to Manor's three tries and a penalty.

Hasty rearrangements at the start meant that flanker Dan Whiteman played at scrum half, Dan Brennan came off the bench to join the pack and substitute Jordan Milburn acquitted himself well, on his first-team debut.

Ollie White joined skipper Liam Pickett at lock and No 8 Brock Price, back from injury, returned in style scoring a brace of tries.

Colchester kicked off and it wasn't long before their fly-half converted a penalty to give them a 3-0 lead.

With the Blacks still adjusting to the new alignment, Manor attacked and put their number ten over in the corner.

It was 8-0 after only ten minutes but Colchester rallied and attacked from the restart moving into Manor's half.

A good shove at the next scrum won them a penalty which fly-half David Higgins converted to open their account.

This fast-moving game played on artificial grass went from end to end over the next 20 minutes until Higgins rifled a long kick into Manor territory where their fullback knocked on.

From the back of the ensuing scrum, Price crashed his way through the defence to put Whiteman over for a try to level the scores 8-8.

By this time, the latecomers had arrived and Matt Wadling took up his position at scrum half.

Before long Colchester turned over a Manor scrum due to the dominance of props James and Alex Mitchell and the ball was moved quickly left for centre Ben Murphy to score in the corner.

Higgins added the extras, putting the visitors 15-8 ahead.

As the first half drew to a close, Price claimed his first try and at the resumption of play, excellent play twice got the ball to wing Dave Brennan who bagged two tries and boosted the score to 34-8 as well as claiming a bonus point.

Manor came back after these reverses and got a forwards' try after a successful lineout of their own.

Flanker Ollie Pickett picked up a yellow card for a dubious tackle so he went off and on came substitutes George Liversidge and Rhys Hartley.

Manor took advantage of this temporary disruption of the Blacks and their No 21 broke through the defence to score a converted try.

However, Colchester had the last word when Price linked up well with Whiteman and Hartley to get his second try in the corner.

As the game drew to a close, man-of-the-match Wadling started a backs' move that ended with elusive fullback Damien Brambley scoring the final try of a pulsating match.

Colchester host top-of-the table Rochford on Saturday, in a much-anticipated match between the only two unbeaten teams in the league.