Saturday 21^st January 2012

London 1 North (Level 6)

Hammers 18 Colchester 42

Colchester RFC made the trip to Hurlingham Park this Saturday and the 1st XV knew they had to raise their game if they were to compete against the second place team in the league.

The Hammers started strongly straight from the kick off with good interplay between the forwards and backs. The home side was awarded an attacking scrum just 5 metres from the Colchester try line, but the possible try scoring opportunity was lost, when Colchester won the ball against the head and cleared the ball to touch. After this initial pressure by the Hammers, the Colchester forwards started to gain control of the game and win most of the scrums and line outs. At a ruck the Hammers gave away a penalty that was kicked by Colchester to take the lead after 10 minutes. From the re-start kick off the Hammers defence went to sleep and allow the Colchester No.8 to sprint un-touched for 40 metres before being tackled, but he was able to off load to a supporting colleague who scored. This try was converted to make the score 10-0. Colchester now raised their game again and a flowing move between backs and forwards left the Hammers defence wide open and from a ruck the opposition scrum half collected the ball and ran towards the try line with only Neil McClure to beat at full back. He chipped the ball over Neil McClure, who made no attempt to get out his way and obstructive him from retrieving the ball. McClure was sent to the sin bin by the referee for 10 minutes for this offence, and from the resulting penalty Colchester made the score 13-0. In many matches previous to this game the Hammers might have caved in after giving away so many points and losing a player in a short space of time, but the team started to put some pressure on Colchester when down to 14 men and from open play the ball was moved through the backs towards Henry Tanner on the left wing, who took the ball at pace and out sprinted the Colchester cover defence from half way, to score a very good try that was converted by Richard Braithwaite. Shortly after this, the Hammers were awarded a penalty that Richard Braithwaite calmly slotted over to make the score 13-10 to Colchester. The Hammers were now playing some good rugby with the forwards getting the upper hand at the breakdown through the good work by Nick Ball, Alex Scarrett and Hugh Campbell. Just when it seem that Colchester were on the back foot and beginning to buckle due to the pressure they were being put under, they were gifted a try right on half time when a loose pass in the Hammers back line was intercepted by the Colchester outside centre who raced away to score a try under the posts which was converted to make the score 20-10. This was a body blow to the Hammers side that had showed in latter stages of the first half that they could hold their own against a well drilled Colchester team.

The second half got under way with Colchester applying early pressure on the Hammers defence which nearly produced a try that was denied by a knock on. From the resulting scrum the Hammers once again lost the ball on their own put in and the Colchester scrum half made ground to towards the 22 metre line before passing to his supporting blindside flanker who sped away to score a try after only two minutes into the second half. This try was not converted but increased Colchester’s lead to 25-10. The Hammers defence was put under immerse pressure after this and Colchester quickly ran in two more tries of which none were converted. There seemed no way back for the home side, but they once again rallied and produced some really good rugby, but couldn’t put points on the board, even when the Colchester right wing was send to the sin bin for aggressive play. Neil McClure finally got some points on the board when he kicked a penalty for the Hammers to reduce the score to 35-13. The Hammers kept up the pressure and it finally told when the ball found its way to Pieter Vans Rensburg who scored a try in the left hand corner to make the score 35-18, with five minutes left in the game. Colchester scored the final try of the game from a scrum 20 metres out from the Hammers line when good between their backs and forwards saw the No.8 crash over under the posts for a converted try, making the final score 42-18 to Colchester.

The final score does not reflect that the Hammers played much better rugby than in recent weeks in this game. This could prove to be a stepping stone for the team to build on over the next few weeks, when they play opposition in the lower half of the London North One league table.