Shelford eventually overcame a stubborn Colchester team in a fiercely competitive match. The battle at the breakdown was well contested, and both sides were guilty of a lack of support for the ball carrier as the ball was either turned over or the ball carrier penalised for holding on. Within the first minute, the first penalty for such an offence was conceded by Colchester on their 22 line, and Cracknell despatched the penalty between the uprights for a 3-0 lead.

Colchester responded well, and had a couple of penalty opportunities themselves with neither being successful, so the score remained 3-0 to Shelford. The third kickable Colchester penalty was finally converted successfully to tie the scores at 3-3.

The first half continued with no real flow to it as both sides continued to infringe, and a further infringement by Colchester at the breakdown resulted in another successful Cracknell penalty for Shelford to regain the lead at 6-3. Nathan Taylor was then yellow carded for tripping an opponent from a quickly taken penalty, which Colchester again decided to kick for goal. The kick fell short, and Shelford responded well on the counter attack with the excellent Louis Rawlings on the charge, but a lack of support meant the attack resulted in nought and the half ended with Shelford marginally ahead at 6-3, but with a man down for the first 10 minutes of the second half to come.

The second half had much more fluidity to it as Shelford started to recycle the ball more efficiently at the breakdown resulting in the backs being able to take advantage of a less organised Colchester defence. A break by Cracknell created space for Murdoch to run a great line and off-loaded to full back Lewis Green to cross the line and run round under the posts, converted by Cracknell, 13-3.

A raft of fresh Shelford legs led to us getting on top of their opponents at this stage, and with better support play and some deft off-loads, this led to Connor Denton off-loading for Sam Perry to swallow-dive over the line, 18-3.

Shelford could have kicked on from there, but Colchester responded well as they decided to run the ball from all areas of the pitch and looked menacingly dangerous at times. Good scrambling defence kept them at bay until a loose clearance kick by Shelford led to space being left for Colchester to counter attack into, resulting in a deserved Colchester try, converted to bring the scores more closely together at 18-10.

Late on, a great defensive tap tackle by prop Lachlan Finlayson stopped what looked a certain Colchester try, which could have left a rather twitchy last couple of minutes for Shelford, but in the end Shelford ran out deserved winners at 18-10 with this gritty performance, even without hitting anywhere near the heights of where they can perform. The game was refereed extremely well as usual by Tony Kennedy and played in great spirit by both sets of players.

Squad: Sam Porter (Captain), Sam Perry (Vice Captain), Nathan Taylor, Angus Hughes, Calum Miller, Ben Foster, Louis Rawlings, Sam Till, Oli Watts, Lachlan Finlayson, Connor Denton, Dan Smith, George Teeboon, Alex Long, Lewis Cracknell, James Murdoch, Calum Shaw, Den Doughty, Toby Poirier, Dan Burling, Josh Till, Lewis Green.