1st XV
Matches
Sat 18 Apr 2015
Camberley Rugby Football Club
1st XV
32
22
Old Freemans
Cam book place in Shield Final

Cam book place in Shield Final

Roger Berry18 Apr 2015 - 22:42
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Despite a largely lack lustre performance Cam prove too much for plucky Old Freemans

For this Surrey Shield semi final Risey and his coaching team decided to ring the changes with only a week to go before the playoff game v Millbrook.
So with a number of new faces and the visitors needing to borrow our Vets kit there was, perhaps, a little sympathy for some of the Cam supporters being slightly confused for a while – although it probably had more to with the pre match drinks, the pink blazers and the bright sun.
Playing away from the clubhouse, a good kick off by Will O'Meara put the black and ambers on the attack and a good series of phases in which they moved the ball out to both wings eventually created space for Mac to break through and feed Chris Bird who was held up just 5m short. Cam continued this pressure in the visitors red zone and eventually turned it into points when, from a lineout drive, Hoff drove over with just 10mins gone.
Cam continued this pressure although their accuracy and intensity was not what we have become used to and this resulted in too many turnovers which gave the visitors the opportunity to get into the match through their rugged pack and eventually they moved into the Cam 22. However when they decided to move the ball wide a poor pass was cleverly picked up by Chris Bird who fed winger Gareth Wedgwood. Gareth's strong running took play deep into the visitors half where he timed his pass perfectly for Chris Bird to score in the corner – so 10-0 after 25 mins..
The visitors stuck at it, however, and profited from the lack lustre black and ambers and scored a converted try following a lineout drive on 30 mins to narrow the gap.
Unfortunately for the Watchetts faithful this did not seem to inject any urgency into the black and ambers and on 35 mins Cam conceded another soft penalty on their 22 and from the resulting lineout OFs drove over for an unconverted try and led 10-12 at half time.
The Cam faithful were certainly stunned at this stage and things got worse at the beginning of the second half when the black and ambers did not deal with the kick off well and ended up conceding a penalty which was converted giving the visitors a 15-10 lead after 43 mins.
Then at last Cam started to up the pace with some good individual runs but were still turning ball over much too easily and were also really suffering at the lineout.
However on 52 mins they retook the lead when Gideon Green attacked from fullback and supported by Phil Andrews, Chris Bird was able to cross for his 2nd try which was converted by Gareth Wedgwood.
Cam were on the attack direct from the restart through Phil Cresswell and Gideon and after several quick phases Jono crossed wide out to extend the lead.
Again Cam seemed to drop their intensity and the visitors came back and another drive saw them bring the score back to 22 all on 60 mins.
From the restart Cam made a complete mess of the visitors set piece and with the ref playing a penalty advantage Jono popped up with the loose ball to score.
The game was still very unstructured but the visitors seemed to be tiring and beginning to fall off a few tackles and a great break by Mac was followed by a couple of quick phases and Dylan charging over wide out to make the score 32-22 on 79mins.
In the end a win takes the boys to Esher to battle for the Shield but overall it was a very average performance lacking in pace, intensity and leadership around the park for large parts of it and Risey will no doubt have plenty to work on this week in training.
The game next week will kick off at 3.00 and we are hoping for an even better turnout than last week v Ironsides – so if you want to have lunch best contact Mike Courtness ASAP.
Tomorrow (Sunday) we are hosting a Mini festival and with no forecast for rain the pitches should be fantastic with hundreds of young players enjoying themselves.
Finally its great to report that today the C&Ws have also made the final of their cup competition by beating Exeter this evening – so a great day for ShedHeds as well as our very own Blackpool Deckchair Appreciation Society members.

Match details

Match date

Sat 18 Apr 2015

Kickoff

14:00
Team overview
Further reading

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Ticket Sponsor - Oval Peak
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