by STEVE WHITEMAN

SUTTON AND EPSOM 31

COLCHESTER 22

National League Three London and South East

COLCHESTER are still searching for their first win of the season after suffering a fourth successive league defeat at Sutton and Epsom.

On a dry but windy Surrey pitch, Colchester played against the wind in the first half and trailed three tries to one at the interval.

To their credit, the Blacks fought back in the second half to gain a slim lead.

But they then threw the game away by giving away too many penalties at crucial stages, which the hosts duly capitalised on.

Colchester's squad was again much changed from the previous week, with Alex Mitchell coming in at prop, David Higgins returning at fly-half and the Pickett brothers back in the pack.

Newcomer Ethan Hughes joined Adam Cook and Alfie Walsh on the bench.

Within ten minutes, Sutton pushed forward from a stolen lineout and scored under the posts.

Their fullback Sam Hurley made sure of the conversion, the start of a good display by him.

Ten minutes later Sutton used the wind advantage to move forward to near the Colchester line.

They turned over the ball at the defence’s scrum and their Number Eight Matt Whitaker charged over for a converted try. Colchester then raised their game with strong running by their backs, particularly centre Damien Brambley and fullback Brett Cutbush and stout defences by their back row, against Sutton’s aggressive half backs and centres.

Led by skipper Liam Pickett, the Blacks worked their way into the Sutton half and gained a scrum ten metres out.

The won ball was moved to mobile prop Joe McMillan who crashed over for a converted try.

But Colchester were soon down to 14 men when scrum-half Matt Wadling was yellow-carded by referee Ben Wilde and Cutbush had to take his place for ten minutes.

And late in the first half, when the ball was moved along Sutton’s back line Hurley showed his pace to score and then convert a try, bringing the interval score to 21-7.

Early in the second half, fly-half Higgins sent a howitzer kick into Sutton’s half and Brambley broke through the defence to put wing James Crozier in for an unconverted try.

Colchester’s coaches Nic Lloyd and Lee Soper added their substitutes during the second half and the changes seemed to inject some belief into their players.

Some good interpassing led to Sam Brown setting up wing Crozier for a try in the corner, which Higgins did well to convert.

And soon after, Higgins was successful with a penalty to give Colchester the lead for the first time as they led 22-21.

But Colchester’s advantage lasted only a few minutes as the heavy Sutton pack worked their way up the pitch and moved the ball left for their winger to score a converted try in the corner.

With the score now at 28-22, the Blacks threw everything into their last quarter of the game.

But Sutton’s defence held and in the final moments, the hosts won a penalty when a Colchester player was adjudged to be off his feet.

Hurley converted to bring his personal tally to 16 points and deprive Colchester of the consolation of a losing bonus point.