Colchester 4 v Aldeburgh - 18th March

At least we turned up

On the day when England played Ireland in Dublin, we can remember the famous comment by John Pullin, England’s captain, at the dinner after the 1973 match. The previous season, Scotland and Wales had refused to travel to Ireland because of the security situation. In 1973, England travelled but lost. Pullin’s comment was: “Well, we may not be much good but we turned up.”

Despite a shortage of available players, Aldeburgh did turn up but were not able to get a win. Without a full team but with support from players from Woodbridge, coach Paddy Allen put a team together which included some of the key Aldeburgh players who were able to dictate the style of play. As a result, much of the game was played in the Colchester half without being able to convert pressure into points.

Previous results suggested that this would at least be a close game with Aldeburgh likely favourites. Neither Colchester 2s or 3s were playing on Saturday. The 4s fielded some strong players. Enough said.

Captain Freddie Burgess damaged his ankle in the first half leaving Aldeburgh a player down for the rest of the half. A Woodbridge player was also injured so Colchester loaned two players for the second half. Despite the disruption, Aldeburgh got a consolation try through Adam Hateley.

By being determined to make the fixture happen and getting good co-operation from the other clubs, all the players were able to get a game of rugby. It also meant that Aldeburgh avoided giving away a five point penalty by cancelling.

Next Saturday brings the final match of the season which is also at Colchester against their 5s. It is definitely a game that Aldeburgh can win, having beaten them at home earlier in the season. A win would give Aldeburgh a finish in third place in the league, a loss would leave them in fourth but a cancellation would take them down to fifth place, below Colchester 4, which would be galling. Let’s hope we can get a good result.