Woodbridge Colts 31 v Colchester 0
Sunday 23 April 2017
Woodbridge Colts defeated Colchester 31-0 to win the Eastern Counties Colts Cup at Hatchley Barn, Woodbridge on Sunday. Having lost out to the Essex heavyweights in various age group finals over the years, the Suffolk side was, on this occasion, too strong for the visitors scoring four unanswered tries.
Kicking off with a light breeze behind them, Woodbridge pressed from the outset and, with Colchester unable to clear their lines, were rewarded with a penalty converted by Jack Johnson. Minutes later Johnson successfully converted his own try, after a searing break through the middle, to extend the home team’s lead to 10-0.
Colchester then exerted some extended pressure of its own, with the hard-running Will Blakemore proving difficult to put down. A series of forward charges led to a penalty near the posts which, unfortunately for the visitors, was missed by Jack O’Sullivan.
This proved expensive when scrum-half Hugo Kelleway wriggled over shortly after and when Johnson chipped to regather under the posts minutes later. The home side had a 24-0 lead at the break.
If Woodbridge had the upper hand behind the scrum, there was more parity up front, with the back row engaged in a ding-dong battle at the break down, Sam Garrington and Jacob Seabrook to the fore for the home team and Francois Rossouw stealing ball for the visitors. Aldis Salavejs was a willing runner for the home forwards whilst fullback Henry Dewar ran back any loose kicks with interest.
The second half saw a further try by Jack Moody, arguably the best team try of the day with the ball passing through six sets of hands, and further penalty by Johnston to complete the scoring. Woodbridge closed out the game via some terrific committed defence with skipper Lewis Jacobs and Hugo Fairbanks-Weston to the fore.
Woodbridge now play Brentwood in the National Plate final at Bedford next weekend, before completing what has been a remarkable season, with the LV final the following week.
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