Colchester U16s 54 - 17 H&D U16s

Conditions where perfect as the two sides faced off ready for kick off on the main pitch. Straight from the kick off it was clear this was going to be a very physical encounter as both sides put in some big first tackles. Both sides where warned from the start about back chatting the referee and it was Harwich who were pinged first for talking back. First penalty to Colchester, which they failed to find touch with and Harwich ran straight back at them. The attack was short lived and Colchester soon found themselves scoring their first try through some good running lines from their backs. They added the extra two points with a successful conversion.

The run of play continued with Colchester for a while and even though Captain Troy Callen and back of the match Bradley Durrant put in some big hits Colchester kept attacking and quickly scored two more tries. Colchester struggled to keep their discipline and found themselves on the wrong side of the referee on more than one occasion leading him to show a yellow card to a Colchester player, removing him from the field for 10min. Harwich took this as a sign and started attacking with some strong forward runs, this led to Jordan Curtis scoring Harwich’s first try of the which was successfully converted by Oliver Hubbard. This spurred the Colchester squad back to life and they soon scored another couple of quick try’s and added the extra points for the successful conversion attempts.

Half time Colchester 33 Harwich 7

The second half started with Harwich going on the attack with some devasting runs through number 8 and forward of the match Tommy Moore and second row Charlie Begbe but Harwich could not find a way through the Colchester defence. While attacking and running the game as always Oliver Hubbard unfortunately turned wrongly on his knee and had to be taken off with a suspected ACL tear, we wish him a speedy recovery. After a quick re-shuffle and another Colchester try Harwich dug deep and Flynn Garwood charged his way over the line for Harwich’s second of the day. After scoring another couple of tries Colchester wanted to end the game with ten minutes to go but Harwich refused and wanted to finish strong. So with only minutes left the squad left everything on the pitch and put together one last attack with forwards and backs combining to see Matt McQue cross the line for Harwich’s third try of the game, scoring the last points of the game and finishing strong.

Final Score Colchester 54 – Harwich 17

A difficult game but great effort from the Harwich squad who never stopped fighting against a very strong Colchester side. We win and loose together but always moving forward as a squad. Speedy recovery for Oliver Hubbard and best wishes.

Report by Lee Durrant