A LOOK BACK AT A VERY SATISFACTORY AFTERNOON AT COLCHESTER…

Jake McCay skippered the side that took the field against Hertford, and forced his way over the line for the opening try of the season. Scrum half Benji Ritson converted. Will Wood added the second, and Josh Carr got over for number three. Ritson made it a perfect afternoon off the tee by adding the extras for both.

So – on to the second game, against Colchester, newly promoted to National League Two. And, as Newbs says, there were “some really pleasing performances by individuals and as a group.”

He continued, “I thought the back line looked like they’re on the same page. I thought the forward pack were hungry and around the scrum and maul and our basics of the game. So yeah, really positive. We had lots of guys playing their first game. We had a handful of guys playing their first adult rugby. so only positive stuff.”

Eli Caven stormed in for the first score – new fly half Luke Bouchier narrowly missed with the extras. Colchester got back on terms, touching down at the corner. Then Jasper Sorrell beat the defence to charge in for the second, and Bouchier opened his kicking account for the season. The hosts profited from an interception that took them under the sticks from their own half to tie the scores with a perfunctory conversion, but Caven’s second, also under the posts and converted by Bouchier, enabled Cambridge to pull away.

Jake Parkinson got over the line – Bouchier adding two more points – and when hooker Jude White finished off a driving maul for try number five, there was only one outcome. Joe Hill walked number six in at the corner for what was a very satisfactory afternoon’s work.

Newby felt it was “nice to put a marker down” – and had deliberately warmed up for the ensuing physical encounter. “We wanted it to be physical. We knew there were going to be mistakes. We knew we were going to play with ambition. And we knew they’d do the same, too. You know, they’re a fast side. They like to play and they’ve got some really, really good players. So we wanted to win that physical battle.

“So, we warmed up that way, you know, with mauls, and we tackled and went through clean-out drills. We didn’t do a lot of fancy stuff in our warm-up. So hopefully that transferred into the performance. Billy Walker and Ben Adams, back from long-term injuries, got through their 30 minutes. Ben actually played 35. So that was nice. I want to make a special mention for Jude White, who’s a back rower and played hooker. He’s been training for hooker for two weeks, just while we’ve got a few guys away and injured. So, a huge respect for Jude and what he did.”

It’s been another long summer of recruitment and integration for Newby: “I hate rugby and I love rugby at the same time. It gives you so much and it costs you grey hairs and sleepless nights. But it’s just nice to be out here at a beautiful club in Colchester. The pitch is fantastic and the crowd were out. And, you know, we’ll go and enjoy the hospitality now and prepare for Friday Night Lights at Bedford. We’ll set clear goals on what we want to achieve in that one.

“We will be under pressure a lot more than we were today. So, what can we achieve out of that? One of the things I want to look at is how do we manage a 20-man squad, which is something new to me and the coaches. So we’ll look at how that works and how that looks. But at the same time, we’ve still got to give guys the opportunity to put their hand up for the Moselely game. it means we have one less training night this week – we’ll still train, but it won’t be as effective as normal. So that would be another challenge for us, how we can we get what we need to get done on Tuesday. And then Thursday might be a top-up and a bit of a social. And then Friday, we’re into it all over again.