Resuming play at 7-88 Colts needed to rectify their batting collapse in order to down Rugby’s first innings total of 113.

They managed to post a five-run lead in 11 overs to finish their first innings on 118.

Tim Cox was the only Colts batsman to really put some runs on the board with his innings of 62 the main contribution to his side’s total.

In their second innings Rugby began the chase and proved to be difficult for the Colts bowling outfit with their impressive second total of 296 off 56 overs.

Colts’ Josh Smith took three handy wickets in 11 overs.

But luck was certainly not on Rugby’s side after the days play ended with Colts 3-37 off 5 overs in their second innings and the match therefore going down to first innings points.

Despite his side’s slump with the bat Colts captain Jason Ryan was pleased with the result and will now be purely focused on rectifying any problems to ensure his side comes out on top in the RSL-Whitney Cup decider in two weeks time.

“A spot in the grand final is what we set out for ourselves to do at the beginning of the season so we have achieved that,” Ryan said.

“We will be having a fair few extra training sessions where we will be focusing on our batting to ensure our blokes get back into form and we will also be doing a lot of fielding.“

Colts all-rounder Wes Giddings admits his team mates have not been overly pleased with their performances in the last few rounds of competition.

“There is now a pretty positive feeling among the team (having made the finals) but we have not been too happy with the way we have played over the last few months but we are pretty experienced when it comes to the finals,”he said.

Despite their loss Rugby have been able to cling onto third place behind Souths and will now face them in the final.

“I think the final result will come down to Jordan Moran and Nathan Munro for Rugby and Tim Berry and JC (John Colwell) for Souths because those guys are really capable of getting the runs,” Giddings said.