Cam Grind out another 5 pointer at Royal Wootton Bassett.

Expectations were definitely muted for one of our longer away trips this Saturday for a 1st time game against Royal Wootton Bassett with 4 senior players all missing through injury - hooker Clarkey, tighthead and one of our leading try scorers Bazza, #8 and pack leader Hughsey and master of everything outside the pack our #10 and kicker extraordinaire Liam and despite their replacements all doing an excellent job, theirs was a tough baptism in what was possibly the most physical game we had seen this season.

As with last week's game the game got off to an explosive start with Cam starting proceedings kicking with the advantage of a good breeze and when they ran back the defensive kick we saw firstly Big Dom carve a gaping hole in midfield before setting Shed on his way from the 22 to dot down with only 2 mins on the clock.
And things got even worse from the restart with Cam firstly winning a pen and from the resulting lineout several phases eventually saw our Favourite Fireman streaking down the touchline before popping the ball to Max to score an unconverted try so the score moved to 10-0 with just 5 mins played.

The next period saw the home side pile on the pressure and despite some pretty heroic defence Cam in the end coughed up possession just too easily and in addition clearly 'lost' the official and on 30 mins the home side's efforts were rewarded when they broke into the Cam 22 and scored a converted try with the added bonus of 10 mins on the naughty step for Brizzle.
The home side continued to call the shots and despite some really good D by Cam RWB finally crossed for an unconverted score just before the break for a 12-10 lead.

The start of the second half again saw Cam under pressure with them again conceding a pen and winning 10mins bench warming but this time the black and ambers escaped pretty much unscathed and were soon in the RWB red zone and following several 5m lineouts followed by penalties a series of Cam pick and goes saw Ozzie Greg eventually cross for a try and with Vic adding the extras the score had moved to 12-17 on 57 mins.

The game had been very stop start throughout with a serious number of injury breaks particularly in the first half and this certainly seemed to unsettle the Cam rhythm but they were soon in action again as, from a scrum directly from the restart we saw #9 Ali make a sparkling break and although he was brought down on the home 22 young Hamish was on hand to continue the attack, dotting down for the bonus point try and a scoreline of 12-22.

To their credit the home side did not roll over and despite eventually incurring the wrath of the official and dropping to 14 men they scored an converted try with less than 10 mins on the clock to yet again raise the blood pressure of the travelling support.
Cam then launched a series of attacks in the next period and a neat chip by Vic saw the Fireman almost over in the corner and with the home side then winning another yellow the game eventually came to a more sedate close with the last action seeing Big Dom calmly winning his lineout ball on 10m and Ali calmly doing the necessary.

So another game which was probably closer than it should have been for Cam but a very physical and determined RWB put up a great fight, belying their current position in the relegation zone and it would be sad to see them drop down a league as, despite the distance, they have a great club with super facilities – a great place to play.

Yet another performance which had so many good things but also too many poor moments when players forgot how important it is to keep possession, focus and intensity for 80 mins.
Really good first start for young Lewis at 2 particularly as throwing his darts with the stiff breeze was always a challenge which he overcame in spades.
Hamish as flanker also showed his class while Vic and Max, both playing out of position, did very well in what was not an easy game.

Next week we have another lengthly away trip to Banbury for our rearranged fixture.

And Finally – well the C&Ws got back to winning ways with a narrow 5 point win over The Queens to maintain their push for a top four place with 2 youngsters they picked up from Worcester Academy playing key roles, Seb Blake at hooker and Seb Atkinson at 12.

Please note for those of you who may be a tad confused by the pics - No Dinger did not use any filters to remove sponsors name etc from the players shirts - the official deemed that our pink and black and/or our yellow and black (we gave him the choice ) would be too confusing with the largely white of the home side