COLCHESTER 60

LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY 12

London League One North

by Steve Whiteman

COLCHESTER bounced back in style to beat Letchworth Garden City and move up to fourth in the table.

The Blacks recovered from their defeat at Ruislip to produce a much-improved performance, notching up nine tries in an excellent display of running rugby at Mill Road.

Colchester's new-look team included Rhys Hartley and Eli Castle in the forwards and Joe Flexman and George Liversidge, in the backs.

The key to their victory was their forwards' solid display and the talent in the backs.

Before long, a wind-assisted high kick from Letchworth’s fly-half was fielded by fullback Will Brown.

He came back at speed and after he fed flanker Dan Whiteman, he passed to Number Eight Ollie Pickett who dived over for an early try.

Letchworth responded at the restart but their burly inside centre was well contained by Flexman.

Indeed, from one such turnover Pickett fed wing James Crozier who scored and converted an excellent try.

Scrum-half Matt Wadling's swift blindside move saw him score in the corner to give Colchester a 19-point half-time lead.

Fly-half Brett Cutbush made good use of the favourable wind in the second half and before long, the Blacks won a penalty that Crozier converted to extend the lead to 22 points.

Letchworth raised their game and soon sprightly scrum-half Chris Gibbs claimed an unconverted try.

But the setback seemed to stir Colchester and in the following 20 minutes, they score three tries in quick succession with hooker Hartley claiming two and Liversidge one.

The coaches made changes with Pickett on for flanker Joe Beckett and Dave Brennan replacing Meads.

But at a Letchworth lineout, the Blacks conceded a penalty for having too many men in the line and were duly punished when the visitors scored shortly afterwards.

But soon after, Colchester winger Meads sped down the pitch and scored an excellent try under the posts.

And not long after that, Cutbush broke through the opposition defence, ran 50 metres and offloaded to dynamo prop Joe McMillan who, amazingly, was on his shoulder and well placed to score in the corner.

Colchester’s 53-12 lead looked unassailable but their scoring was not over.

As the clock ticked down, the ball was again moved to Crozier who ran 50 metres to score his second try which he duly converted, to wrap up the hosts' win.

Crozier's personal tally was an impressive 25 points and he had a fine game, as did man-of-the-match Hartley.