COLCHESTER Rugby Club ran out 34-0 winners against fifth-paced Tunbridge Wells to consolidate second spot at Raven Park, writes STEVE WHITEMAN.
The visitors had won a close encounter earlier in the season but the Blacks dominated this match with five unanswered tries.
Colchester head coach Craig Burrows said: “I’m not entirely satisfied as we did not always stick to our game plan.
“It was a bit stop/start at times and I feel we could have won by a greater margin. However we earned a bonus point and gave no tries away so that was satisfying.”
Colchester fielded a strong team despite having to make changes due to injuries.
Flanker Alex Gerard returned to the back row and prop Dan Maling also came up from the second team to take his place on the bench.
Tunbridge kicked off and both sides tested their opponents defence for a while but there was no immediate breakthrough.
After 15 minutes of nip and tuck Tunbridge were given a scrum on the halfway line.
Good work by the Blacks pack turned over possession and earned a penalty.
Fullback Jimmy Mpailane kicked the ball well into touch on the visitors’ 22 line.
Winning the line out the Blacks moved the ball to Gerard who scored in the corner.
Fly-half Chris Lewis added the extras putting Colchester 7-0 in the lead and he later added a successful penalty to his tally, making it 10-0.
Tunbridge were being kept at bay with some hard tackling especially by centres Adam Thomas and Jacob Bodkin whilst the forwards scrummaging and line out were working well.
From a well worked line out by hooker Sam Butler and catcher Skipper Sam Easton, the ball was passed via flanker Cam Kerr to Bodkin who raced upfield and off loaded to wing Connor O’Reilly for a fine converted try.
The jubilant Blacks turned round at halftime with 17 unanswered points.
After the break, the game raised in physical intensity with both sides suffering minor injuries in their ranks.
After ten minutes, Mpailane's brilliant interception saw him run the length of the pitch before being tackled just short of the try line.
Scrum half Button was on hand to finish the move and score in the corner. The conversion went wide putting the Blacks 22 points ahead.
Colchester’s coaches rang the changes and Sooalo Ropati replaced Thomas and Brett Cutbush took up the scrum half position with Button moving to fly-half and Lewis resting.
Pprop Maling came off the bench in a swap with Joe McMillan.
Late in the match good defence by Colchester got the ball to Mpailane who kicked deep into Tunbridge territory gaining a lineout, five metres out.
The two Sams linked well and Maling crashed through the defence, off loaded to O’Reilly who fed Mpailane who scored a fine bonus point try.
Unfortunately Button hit the post with the conversion attempt.
It was 27-0 but the Blacks weren’t finished as on the stroke of full-time, Ropati got the ball to wing Ratu Rokomoce, who sprinted under the posts for the final score.
Joint winners of the coaches' man-of-the-match went to Gerard and O’Reilly whilst the sponsors award went to Jimmy Mpailane, who had had a busy game.
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