Despite playing some of their best rugby of the season, lapses in concentration caused Colchester to let the points slip away to a youthful Basildon side.

The All-blacks started brightly and the pressure paid off when wing Lawrence Tapper touched down in the corner to open the scoring and a James Gee penalty soon afterwards took the score to 8-0.

Basildon came back quickly with a try from a lineout, but another Gee penalty took Colchester into an 11-5 half-time lead.

The home team kicked off after the break and a rapid penalty and lineout saw them score their second try to be trailing by just a single point.

With the slender lead Colchester went on the attack, and from a scrum Duder broke though before passing to flanker Neil Hamilton who crossed the Basildon line only to be held up.

Basildon counter-attacked from an All-blacks kick on 60 minutes in a move which saw the ball passed from one wing to the other and was eventually fed to the full back to score a try under the posts.

A simple conversion saw the home team take a 17-11 lead.

Basildon were able to put the result beyond doubt when they scored their fourth try from a quickly-taken penalty to take the scoreline to 22-11 where it stayed until the final whistle.

Published Tuesday, September 28, 2004

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