Superb Opening Quarter just too much for Marlborough

So this trip to Marlborough which was a first for the club, had earlier in the week, acquired a tad more spice than usual when the home side, previewing the game on social media, were keen to highlight that they were unbeaten at their ground for 616 days.
The hosts were clearly not aware that the black and ambers have, traditionally, loved this sort of challenge and the Watchett faithful still talk with pride of the day, a couple of seasons back, when they ended the 5+ year unbeaten run of London Welsh at Old Deer Park.
Suffice to say the black and ambers, despite playing up the slope in the first half, had already claimed their try bonus point with just 23 mins on the clock in an exhibition of outstanding 15 man rugby to which the home side simply had no answer.

So Cam started by receiving the kick off and good drills eventually saw them claim a scrum in their own half. Great scrummaging won them a pen but, playing the advantage, we saw great interplay between fullback Vic and our Fireman with the young 15 touching down with just 4 mins played.
The next few mins saw young Vic almost through again but although the home side slowly moved play into the middle of the park they were already being forced to infringe in an effort to slow down the black and amber attacks and a couple of these pens moved Cam into the redzone and a great lineout catch and drive saw Macca driven over for a second try and a score of 14-0 with 15 mins played.

The next few mins were a horror show for Marlborough when following their restart, which ended up going backwards, Cam had a scrum on halfway. Winning the scrum comfortably we saw young Max, who is improving in every game this season, spot a gap and with several beautiful dummies covered the 50m unaided before dotting down under the posts for an outstanding individual try.

Again the restart drills worked well for Cam and a delightful dab by Razer took play up to the home 22 and when the home side again incurred the wrath of the official we were in the redzone again and another great catch and drive saw Macca again the last man up claiming his second of the afternoon and although Smarty was not able to add the extras this time around the score moved to 26-0 and the tbp secured with only 23 mins played.

So the Cam supporters could relax, defibrillators stored away for next week, and, as is usual in these situations play became far less structured and the gap between what players can do and think they can do becomes much wider and the home side came more into the contest and set up a series of pick and goes which eventually led to a converted try on 28 mins.
Before the interval we saw Dom make a good break setting up our Fiery Fireman but he was pulled up just short and so the score remained 7-26 when the ref blew for a break.
With Cam now playing down the slope there was a feeling among the crowd that they could really kick on in the second 40 but it turned out to be much more ragged from both sides with Smarty kicking 2 pens from almost half way to extend the lead on 53 mins before, on a rare visit to the Cam 22, the home side claimed a second try following poor Cam defence but this was to be the last time they troubled the scorer while the black and ambers had one last treat as, playing another pen advantage we saw the ball spread wide and a lovely arcing run by Matt Bowers saw him set Fireman George off to touch down in the corner making the score 12-37. Both sides seemed to run out of ideas and energy as the game wore on until we saw Max again set off on one of his stunning runs this time from a lineout and he just he lost the foot race to touch down and the game slowly drifted to its conclusion.

Pic courtesy of our old friend Lee who I discovered has not been too well of late but is definitely seems to be on the mend - our thanks best wishes to him and his family

This was a great performance by the black and ambers following a couple of poor displays and now the coaches will be hoping to build on that for the game against League Leaders Havant next week at Watchetts.

Overall Clarkey, who clearly enjoyed his run out at #2 whatever he may say, and Voighty will be really pleased with the performance and it give them a good base to move forward. Again this was an 18 man performance with lots of really good performances across the board and next Saturday could prove to be very tasty.

And Finally – well a bit like the black and ambers the C&Ws got off to an express start in their Prem Cup game v The Queens last night and were leading 22-0 at the end of the first quarter, finally winning 25-17 against a strong side from the Stoop.