No Feast for the Squirrels as they lose a tight game at the Mighty Oaks

Squirrels meet their match in Sevenoaks

This Saturday's trip to Sevenoaks was identified some time ago as the first in a run of games for Cam against serious promotion candidates with games against Medway and Westcombe Park to follow before Xmas and just as in the first game of the season at Brighton, the black and ambers came up against a very good side who were physical, pacey, aggressive and well drilled and in the end came up just short for their second defeat of the season.
The game saw Cam kicking off into a breeze but with the sun at their backs and when they regained possession they set up a series of phases taking play across the field and then back until their patience was rewarded when the hosts just ran out of players and the Flying Fijian crossed in the corner with just 4 mins played.
This purple patch continued with Cam again forcing the pace and they were very unlucky not to add to their score when a pass by Oyoni which put Hasty over was adjudged forward.
At this stage 7Oaks started to play a bit themselves and they converted a penalty on 10 mins for 3-5
The restart again provided Cam with some good ball and they were a tad unlucky that following a load of phases the ball was knocked on and the opportunity lost.
However it was clear even at this early stage that the opposition were a much better side than many in this league and their tackling was absolutely outstanding with the result that the black and ambers were finding it hard to make the line breaks although from a defensive kick we did see TommyA again take a perfect line as he carved through the home side but his long pass to Josh Lewanituva was just too hard for the centre to claim for what would have been a certain try.
The half continued with both sides putting in some massive hits and this aggressive defence clearly limited the number of clean breaks from both teams and on 30 mins the home side converted another penalty to take the lead.
Cam came back straight away from the restart and a neat crossfield chip from Smarty saw Ash just unable to collect it cleanly and soon after Cam had the opportunity to re take the lead but in the difficult conditions Smarty pushed his kick wide.
The black and ambers also were then a tad unlucky when Oyoni was adjudged to have executed a high tackle which seemed extremely harsh based on a number of tackles already made during the game but Cam reached halftime with no more mishaps.
The second half saw Cam start quite strongly but they seemed to be easily knocked out of their rhythm and with the lineout now not functioning the home side came much more into the game but despite this Cam retook the lead with a sweetly struck kick on 55 min.
The hosts meantime had upped their game and in particular their complete dominance of the lineout and a number of very good driving mauls eventually saw them cross for the try on 65 mins moving the score to 13-8 and despite several concerted attempts and being camped in the red zone for the closing minutes of the game the black and ambers were just not able to crack open the home side's outstanding D.
So another big step in the learning process for this young and largely inexperienced team as Sevenoaks will not be the last side who will halt their free running game and they now know that they will need to be much more patient in their build up before going for the jugular.
This was indeed a tough game for all 18 and hopefully it will provide the motivation to up their games as they appear to have done following their loss in the first game of the season.
Next week we entertain Westcombe Park, a side I can remember us playing in 2001, in what is sure to be another difficult game.
And Finally – well the C&Ws had an outstanding win on Friday against the Tigers winning 36-13 with Ollie Thorley scoring 2 brilliant 'Ash like' tries. For those into quizzing or rugby history apparently there have been more than 220 fixtures between the clubs since records began with Glaws just shading the # of wins..