A great day of RL was had in Colchester as our Primary age groups warmed up proceedings in the morning and shortly followed by our men's A Grade getting their first hit out of the season in the East RL Cup. A side of mixed ages and abilities put up a noble challenge but were hampered from the start with some late dropouts and starting the game with only 12 players, occasionally dropping down to 10 which some taking knocks still managed to get on the scoreboard but crashed out 36-6 giving Rhinos a chance to retain the cup.

The SCL game was up next and with a win in the bag, Eels were hoping to use their momentum for fast start but its couldn't have gone any worse with fullback Callum Whitcombe reacting to a play the ball on the first set of the game giving the rhinos valuable field position opened the scoring. Eels defense didn't look familiar and it wasn't long before rhinos were in again following a short kick, the bounce of the ball almost comically avoiding all Eels players forcing them to collide and rhinos extended their lead. Our first good ball of the game ended up with a try for Callum Whitcombe just before the water break, the rest of the second half went in similar fashion with the FOUR match officials on the day spending some time reviewing decisions only to alter them in favor of the home side, a sin bin was given to Callum Whitcombe which only added to the frustration. There was some positives as Aaron Corbertt 16 years young and fresh back from Ireland U18 duty scored on debut after a cross field kick caused confusion he reacted the fastest and was duly rewarded as well as the team with 12 men.

Halftime meant Rhinos lead 18 to 8.

The second half went from bad to worse for the Eels as their completion dropped so did the teams heads, with a few new middles finding their feet at SCL for the first time some dysfunction and lack of discipline led to further depletion of the scoreline where it got to 8-30 in rhinos favor with another comical score finding their half backs hands from a speculative grubber and deflection form an eels player. With 20 minutes to go we manged to complete the last set of the game with Ryan Whitcombe storming in the right hand corner in trademark fashion. Both sides struggled with basic core skills towards the end in a poor show to what should have been a better spectacle of rugby league in Essex.

Tries:
C Whitcombe, A Corbett, R Whitcombe
Conversions:
L Ferrier 0/3

MOTM - Matt Tootill