Colchester bested a battling Barking side 38-0 by scoring six unanswered tries to stay top of London League division one north in a high-intensity contest at Mill Road.

This proved to be a proverbial game of two halves, Colchester’s five second half tries sealing the win after Barking dominated much of the first half.

Barking controlled the first half hour as Colchester were forced into a robust defence and conceded a series of penalties, before referee David Jones yellow-carded flanker Ollie Pickett for a line-out offence.

Aided by their penalty assists, Barking besieged the Colchester 22, mauling their way over the Colchester line but the ball was held up – backchat to the referee cost a penalty that Colchester fly-half David Higgins cleared upfield.

Colchester counter-attacked and centre Matt Smith broke tackles and wing James Crozier closed to the Barking line where full-back Craig Radford was sin-binned for preventing an early release.

Higgins penalty kick then edged wide of the posts. Barking countered, aided by repeated penalties which saw Colchester prop Jerome Awesu yellow-carded.

Barking threatened until a crunching tackle by Colchester lock Graeme Hay dislodged the ball.

A scrum was followed by a driving maul which rumbled over the Barking line where Hay grounded for the opening try on half-time for a flattering 5-0 lead. The Colchester coaches’ half-time team talk led to a more focused performance and fewer penalties conceded.

Barking tried taking the game to Colchester but another crunching tackle by Matt Smith dislodged the ball, scrum half Ed Perry released number eight Shane Nayalo to charge upfield before offloading to flanker Picket, who shrugged off tacklers, to score.

Chasing the game, Barking over extended and Colchester countered from their own half, Nayalo and Smith carried upfield before linking with flanker Danny Whiteman who raced in to touchdown.

Now in control, Colchester swept upfield, line-out and scrum wins forcing Barking to retreat and concede penalties, ending with Crozier’s quick-thinking opportunist tap and race to ground the ball at the foot of the posts for the fourth bonus-point try.

Attacking again the Barking backs tried to chip the Colchester defence but skipper Calum Irvine fearlessly charged the kick, the ball spinning haphazardly until plucked from the air by Crozier, who led the race to score wide left. Higgins added his third, and most difficult, conversion from the touchline.

Gamely trying to score, Barking’s attacking kick was fielded by Colchester full-back Brett Cutbush, who countered at speed.

Wing Matt Wadling broke upfield to link with Harry Gozzett and the replacement flanker ran 40 metres to score under the posts with his first touch of the ball. Crozier added the conversion for the 38-0 final score.