Cam dig deep to end Havant's unbeaten run

So last week, after the Marlborough game, I joked that the defibrillators were put back in their boxes after 25 mins when Cam claimed the tbp, well this weekend saw a very tight game against previously unbeaten Havant and they didn't get put away until the ref blew for full time!!!.
Games against Havant in recent years have been invariably physical, fiesty and hard fought and today was absolutely no exception although it must be said that poor discipline by Cam and a bit of complacency at the break down in particular did not make this victory easy either for the players or indeed for the Watchetts faithful, and of course, the visiting supporters and coaches did not disappoint and were predictably incandescent when the ref eventually blew full time on what had been a incredibly long afternoon.

The game, played in good conditions despite a reasonable breeze blowing towards clubhouse corner never really flowed for either side with the visitors, for large parts of the game, making the breakdown their own and frankly Cam rarely challenging and as a result Havant went ahead with a simple pen after 5 mins.
The next 20 saw both sides playing very attritional rugby and Cam were a tad fortunate to take the lead when Brizzle cleverly read the Havant centre's mind to intercept and run in from halfway.
However those who felt that this would be the spark the black and ambers needed were very wrong as the visitors fought tooth and nail and, despite Smarty extending the lead to 7 points with a well taken pen, the visitors grafted and with a pen and a converted try went in at half time 13-10 to the good.
The second period started with Cam receiving and they soon took play into the Havant redzone with darts by Clarkey and Bowers and eventually were scrumming down 5m from the Havant line.
We then had a 10 mins period, the like of which I have never seen before with Cam on 5m, their scrum absolutely dominant, being awarded at least 7 scrum penalties with the visitors picking up 2 yellow cards which resulted in uncontested scrums and eventually we saw Mac drive from the base of the scrum to be held up just short before Hughsey crashed over for a converted try moving the score to 17-13 with 55 mins gone and almost all of the second half played in the visitors redzone.
To their credit Havant upped their game from the restart and although they missed a pen opportunity almost immediately another soft pen conceded by the black and ambers brought the score back to 17-16 and despite Smarty converting a pen shortly after the restart the visitors came straight back, now that they had a full complement on the park, and aggressive rugby saw them cross in the corner and take a 20-21 lead with about 10 mins on the clock.
Suddenly there was a bit more urgency in the black and amber ranks and recovering their own restart kick they drove hard deep into the Havant 22 and with the Havant player getting his second yellow of the afternoon the official also decided to award Cam a penalty try.
The final few minutes saw desperate play from both sides and although Havant again entered the redzone courtesy of yet more soft penalties by the home side the final action saw great D by the black and ambers resulting in Havant's final 5m lineout drive being unceremoniously shoved out of play.

So strangely having started in 2nd place before the game and beating the leaders the black and ambers found themselves falling to 4th in what is a very tight top of the table and they hopefully will have learned that sloppy pens conceded and less than 100% at the breakdown is just not good enough to chase top spot.

This was both a very satisfying victory as they all are against our South Coast visitors and also a wake up call that if there is a real drive for top spot then physicality, commitment and discipline need to go up another level.

So the heroes today were clearly the pack with the front row out scrummaging the visitors by a country mile – Loose head Antonio is really settling into his role as enforcer and is always inspirational to the rest of the side. Clarkey, again stepping in for Smurf worked very hard although his darts and his understanding of the high tackle law let him down a tad while Bazza had another huge game, despite carrying an ankle injury. We then have Big Dom and Sam in the row and today didn't change my view that they are the best lock pairing in the league while the back row of Hughsey, Macca and Birdy were simply outstanding with Macca carrying like a man possessed.
Max, at 9, had a quieter game this week with Havant minimising his opportunities to run and Smarty will not put this one in his memory box while the rest of the backs all did their bit, particularly in defence, but really just didn't get enough quick ball to show us all what they are capable of.

So next week we have a rest weekend before we travel to Tunbridge Wells, another first since the leagues began.

And Finally – so the C&Ws had an extra busy weekend celebrating their 150th anniversary starting with a Prem Cup game against neighbours and friends Pury on Friday in which they finally pulled clear on 60 mins to record a bonus point win while today they hosted a Baa Baas team at Castle Grim which if nothing else saw summer signing Zac Mercer make his debut. So its Cov next Sat to complete the Cup comp then The Queens visit The Holm for the first Prem game – any predictions Santi??.