BRACKNELL RFC again suffered late heartbreak as they slipped to a 24-21 defeat at Colchester in National Three London & South East.

With head coach Rory Greenslade-Jones away, Daniel Ap Daffyd took charge of a side bolstered by the return of Kenny Barry and George Milligan.

The Lily Hill men made a promising start as they played the first half with the win at their backs, taking the lead through a Lachlan Valentine try after eight minutes, Liam Hemming converting to make it 7-0.

Colchester hit back a minute later courtesy of a Liam Hemming penalty after Bracknell were pinged for collapsing a scrum, but Hemming scored a wonderful individual try to reassert his side's control. The conversion made it 14-3 after 16 minutes.

The hosts responded with another penalty from Higgins to cut the gap to 14-6 at half time.

The second half started badly for Bracknell, and within four minutes Colchester had their first try from openside flanker Daniel Whiteman.

The Essex side now had their tails up and levelled the score with a third Higgins penalty, awarded against Bracknell for not releasing the ball in a tackle.

Things were to get worse for Bracknell as a deft kick through the visitors' back line allowed Colchester full back Jaid Wiltshire to score with just 12 minutes of the half gone.

In a topsy-turvy contest, Bracknell answered with a try from wing Ben Yates after Barry broke the Colchester defensive line and Henning made an incisive pass. The fly half added the extras to leave the visitors 21-19 ahead.

However, as has often happened this season, Bracknell came up short in the final stages as Wiltshire grabbed his second try to make it 24-21.

And despite making one final break, Hemming's pass was fumbled in the final stages and the Lily Hill Park side now have just one win in six games.

Bracknell have a bye week this coming weekend and return to action with a home game against unbeaten London Irish Wild Geese.