Colchester travelled to the Channel Islands to play their last game of the season and came away losing 31-17.

The first 20 minutes of the game saw the hosts throw everything at Colchester, but the Blacks defence held firm.

Often, several forays by Guernsey would lead to a turnover ball with Colchester’s hardworking forwards getting the ball back to fly-half David Higgins, who would clear their lines with some long-range kicking.

The impasse was broken after 20 minutes when Guernsey won a penalty 10 metres from the Colchester line and piled over for an unconventional try.

An offence in a scrum on their 22-metre line led to Colchester being awarded a penalty just behind the halfway line. Higgins coolly slotted the kick bringing the score to 5-3.

The jubilation of the Colchester crowd was subdued soon after however, when Guernsey scored a catch and drive try at the opposite end just before half-time.

When the game restarted Guernsey threw everything at Colchester but they continued with their own attacks.

From one such attack, Higgins broke through the middle and offloaded to Danny Whiteman who scored under the posts.

Tom Miller converted and suddenly Colchester were in contention 12-10.

Unfortunately, soon afterwards, centre George Liversidge was yellow-carded and Guernsey used their superior numbers well and following a scrum five metres out, put the full-back over for a well converted try, bringing the score to 19-10. Five minutes later they scored another try following a successful Guernsey line out.

The second half saw some disagreement between the sides leading to a yellow card for Guernsey and a red card for Colchester’s Jerome Awesu.

Guernsey pressed forward and, after a lot of pressure, dived over for a converted try, bringing the score to 31-10.

Colchester had the final say however, when lock Eli Castle broke free, ran 20 metres, and then offloaded to flanker Alex Rayment, who scored under the posts.

There was a very fitting end to the proceedings when Kiwi Te Albert, playing his last game, converted the try with the final kick of the game.