Loosing 43 - 19 to Leicestershire was not the best way or the County to start its County Championship Shield campaign, so its an uphill struggle from here onwards.  With Oxfordhsire beating East Midlands our next opponents we are certainly  need to up our game.  Heavier and a much taller second row faced the team as they took to the field in bright sunlight at Market Harbourers superb facilities and grounds.  A lively start by Leicstershire saw two tries in quick succession inside the fist ten minutes as the home side settled down into their rytham a lot quicker that Essex.  Two further tries by Leicester put us further behind and chasing the game.

Towards the end of the firt half Essex started to get their game togehter and a fightback appeared possible.  some excellent rucking adn msuling got the county into the Leicester 22 and close to the line.  More determined rucking eventually saw Nick Cooper-Hicks dive over the ruck for the County's first try converted by Darryel Worster. Essex then saw out the fremaining 10 minutes of the first half with some excellent work which took the game back to the oppostion.  The half time score was 24 - 7.

The promising last ten minutes of the first half continued into the begining of the second half during which Emile Soloman,  on the left wing received a clean ball to streak ahead of the opposition to score a second try for Essex.   However, ais ten minute spell, Leicester opened up their gam eand replied with three more tries without reply.  The last word theough came from Essex with a final try in the last minutes of the game leaving the score at 43 - 19.  Head Coach was quite upbeat about the teams first performance considerig that the team had not had time for a warm up match.  " The next match against East Midlands will be crucial.  We are on home soil at Barking, and the lads will want to prove themselves.  The shield is not lost yet and I expect that without any playing distractions during the week the team will be fully fit for next weekend.