Fullerians put in a valiant display at Colchester in their penultimate London 1 North game of the season but ultimately lost 10-5.

John Barson scored his side’s only points of the game, crossing to tie the game at 5-5 after Colchester had taken the lead.

Fullers were forced to make changes to the 15 that beat Ruislip due to unavailability, but the young side showed heart and desire to compete with their opponents.

The visitors’ lineout was working well and they capitalised on ill-discipline from Colchester at the set-piece to put them in their 22, but they let their hosts off the hook and couldn’t turn the pressure into points.

The visitors had to make changes due to injury and eventually Colchester showed why they occupy second spot in the table by crossing the line down the right wing. The missed conversion meant they led 5-0.

Fullers plied the pressure in the set piece after half-time and although a scrum collapse could have resulted in a penalty try, Fullers picked up and Barson drove over to level at 5-5.

With Colchester back to full strength after initially going down to 14, they went back ahead as Fullers kicked out of their 22 but couldn’t put up a chase as they began to tire, and the left-winger crossed to make it 10-5.

The score stayed that way until the end, leaving Fullers third from bottom but well clear of second-bottom Luton with one game left to play, which is at home to North Walsham this Saturday.

Meanwhile, Tabard were narrowly edged out 29-27 by Old Merchant Taylors’ in their final game of the London 3 North West season.

Jack Reilly secured the biggest haul of the points for Tabard in a back-and-forth game that they were unlucky to not take anything from.

Reilly put the first points on the board with a well-taken penalty after 10 minutes, but Taylors’ responded quickly with a try at a five-metre scrum.

Aaron Priscott burst through for Tabard in a bid to restore the lead but was illegally prevented from doing so, meaning the referee awarded a penalty try for Tabard to lead 10-7.

Taylors’ came back again and scored two unconverted tries, both from long kicks into Tabard’s 22, which took the score to 17-10 after half an hour of play.

Reilly then kicked a penalty into Taylors’ 22 and were unable to win the line-out, but won another against the head at the next scrum and he broke in field to score by the post, leaving the scores tied at 17-17 at the break.

Tabard picked up two well-deserved tries early in the second half, firstly after good work from Reilly and John Aquila set up Deniyi Olashore to go over and then Marcus Bunning barged through from close range.

Taylors’ hit back again, however, and two tries, one which was converted, edged them ahead by two points, a gap that Tabard couldn’t close even after being awarded two late penalties, and they had to settle for a loss to end the season.