In our latest round-up of the local rugby action, only Colchester can celebrate a win.
London One North
COLCHESTER returned from a trip to Luton with a big win, seeing off their old rivals 54-17.
David Higgins crossed to give them the lead, before Kevin Tavainavesi added to the advantage.
Luton drove a line-out over the line to get themselves on the board, but moments later Brock Price crossed for Colchester in a similar move.
Indeed, the Blacks has secured the bonus point before the break, as Ollie White charged over to make it 26-5.
In the second half Colchester galloped away to win, with Tavainavesi, Harrison Pickett, Matt Wadling and Price again adding further scores.
Elsewhere, SUDBURY were thumped 64-17 at Rochford Hundred. Harry and Sam Maile got their tries in what was an not unexected defeat against the best side in the league.
And DISS also struggled against a side flying high in the table, going down 41-0 to fourth-placed Old Haberdashers.
London Two North East
SOUTHWOLD matched Romford and Gidea Park in most departments except one – ruthless finishing – in a 51-22 defeat on the road.
‘Wold’s pack were dominant, but lots of good possession just couldn’t be turned into points.
The Suffolk side took an early 8-0 lead through a Ben Felton penalty and Ritchie Thickett try, but by half-time the home side had scored four tries and led 26-8.
Jamie Jenner and Guy Blades added further scores for Wold after the break, but they couldn’t get any closer.
Meanwhile, STOWMARKET travelled to top of the league Woodford and almost pulled off a surprise win.
Woodford dominated play for most of the first half having scored two quick tries and a penalty and threatened to overwhelm Stowmarket.
However, two breakaway tries by Leif Bjornson and one through captain Jake Squirrel brought Stow level at half time.
Woodford again dominated the second half and having scored two fine tries looked to be comfortably in control. However, they were surprised when Stowmarket ran the ball from behind their try line to score a brilliant try by Dan Garrard that silenced the crowd.
Another breakaway try by Bjornson and a Garrard peanlty put Stowmarket three points up with three minutes left.
But Woodford regained possession from the kick off and scored with almost the last play of the game to win 34-32.
London Three Eastern Counties
The WOODBRIDGE WARRIORS were beaten 31-13 on the road at Crusaders.
Despite playing with 14 players for a quarter of the match and giving up too many penalties, Crusaders dominated the scrum and used possession to better effect than Woodbridge.
Veteran No 8 Pete Blinkhorn scored Crusaders’ first try followed quickly by another from a spritely Jamie Dack at scrum half. The Warriors Angus Clogg, standing in at fly half for an injured JP Hart, kept them in the match with two penalties but before the break Cru’s prop Lewis Smith got another forward’s try.
The second half saw prop Henry Joy over after five minutes for the bonus point before a period of improved performance from Woodbridge, defending hard and threatening through No8 Aldis Salavejs and his pack.
It was insufficient to prevent another forward, replacement prop Henry Mower, scoring though and it was left to centre Tom Stokes to finish the match with a consolation Woodbridge try.
London Three Essex
CHELMSFORD were beaten 31-26 by Old Cooperians, but battled back from a 26-point deficit after half an hour to make the game competitive.
Andy Cook, Matt Jefferson, Callum Booth and Nicolas Crouch scored for the Blue Boys to tie the scores and, with ten minutes to go, Chelmsford looked like they could take the game.
But, in the last minute, fine ball handling saw Coops cross to grab victory.
Elsewhere, BRAINTREE lost 22-19 at East London.
Tree trailed 7-0 at half time but came into the game much more after the interval. After going 12-0 down they hit back via a try from man-of-the-match Ben Gough only for East London to notch a penalty to make it 15-5.
A try from winger Tom Drew converted by Josh Wadforth made it 15-12 before the same scoring combination briefly put Tree 19-15 in front from a breakaway try.
But poor game management leading to a fluffed clearance kick saw the home side score a late converted try of their own to snatch the points.
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