A slightly delayed match report this week, but last Sunday saw half of the Chelmsford Colts’s face Southend U18’s in their second league game of the season. A home game for the lads and they were anticipating a tough game, but everyone was keen to get going and try out some of the set pieces they have been working on in training.

The boys started very strong. Within just 5 minutes of kick off, CRFC scored the first try of the game directly under the posts, which was successfully converted. CRFC remained dominant throughout the 1st half, demonstrating intensity at the breakdown, speed into the rucks and skilful movement of the ball to the edges creating space. Such great commitment from every player to either retain possession or to quickly win it back, made it impossible for Southend to find their way into the game. 2 x further tries, and a couple of difficult conversions sailing through the posts saw CRFC up 21 – 0 after 15 minutes.

Some poor discipline from Southend saw them lose a player to a yellow card and the intensity from CRFC continued for the rest of the 2nd half. Apart from one rushed missed penalty kick, CRFC hardly put a foot wrong, scoring a further 2 converted tries before the half time whistle. CRFC 35 / Southend 0

Uphill for the second half, so CRFC could not be complacent with the scoreline. Some changes made from the bench and the play resumed. However, the structure that CRFC had in the first half seemed to fall apart in the 2nd half and play became somewhat scrappy. That said, CRFC kept Southend out of game and they touched down again over the line after 22 minutes, taking the score board to CRFC 40 / Southend 0
Under the RFU rules, once a game reaches a points difference of 39, then the game is stopped and the results recorded as 39-0. With still time on the clock, and after a discussion with the Southend Coach, the boys carried on playing the remaining minutes of the game, despite the result having been decided. Southend did score one try, which couldn’t be converted and CRFC scored a further 2 converted tries before the final whistle blew.

Final Score – CRFC 39 / Southend 0

Such a great game to watch and the first half at least, was an awesome display of rugby from every single player. The discipline was on point, with only a minimal number of penalties given away and the players are learning quickly to “read the ref” and “play to the whistle”. We need to work on structure in the second half, as well as some specific areas of the game where improvement is needed – but that can be picked up at training, and the boys can be proud of how they played on Sunday. Once again it was great to see some Colts who were not involved with the match day squad this week (and their parents) come down to watch too. Such great support from the whole CRFC Colts team.

Next week, the Colts will be travelling to Woodford for another Division 1 league game