While all the runner types took over Cambridge for the half marathon 16 intrepid Colts (and much of the rest of Cambridge Youth) went to over to Colchester for a friendly development match and a very large helping of their excellent chips. Colchester paid us the compliment of turning out quite a large squad (in both senses of the word!) but nothing daunted, Colts started fast with a nicely worked try for Stanley within the first three minutes and Heinrich converted.
There were high hopes for the next 10 minutes that another score could be added, but Colchester’s defence got more organised and their big powerful forwards proved a handful every time they got the ball. Superior discipline on our side kept us in the game but after 10 minutes of Cambridge pressure on the Colchester defence, the next score went to Colchester, who quickly followed up with another try.
Nothing daunted, Colts went back to it and managed to work the ball back into Colchester’s 22, with Eddie and Toby D putting together some powerful work to score in the corner and level the score. But Colchester struck back quickly with a line break to score just before half time.
Colchester’s subs proved particularly effective after half time, with a lot of powerful carrying down the centre. Despite a lot of personal effort, Cambridge defence got a bit disconnected and Colchester took full advantage, to rack up three tries. Still, credit to the Colts who never stopped striving, and came very close to scoring at least twice, but without being able to finish things off. On the third time of asking though, Eddie C produced a powerful run to score in the corner, and the momentum shifted slightly back to Cambridge, confirmed by a fantastic end to end sprint from Felix FM for the last Cambridge try of the day.
Final score confirmed an emphatic Colchester win, but doesn’t reflect the positives – discipline, resilience and commitment – from Colts. A lot of development, some good points to work on going forward, and most importantly a lot of chips.
Final score 48 Colchester – 22 Cambridge