Unfortunately I have only been able to enjoy 60 mins of the London Welsh game and todays extravaganza against H&F this season, the first was an epic, physical, skillful, competitive and full of class which saw us lose out in the dying minutes when down to 14 men, while today we were treated to a game full of connected rugby with some amazing driving mauls, powerful set pieces and brilliant plays by the backs, which at full time, with the help of an immaculate boot of #10 Alex, saw a final score of 70-5 so keeping in touch with the unbeaten Welsh and Jersey .

Today with the black and ambers playing towards the club house were soon on top with their powerful maul giving them a 21-0 scoreline on just 13 mins with hooker Marlen claiming all of them.
On 20 mins Bowers skilfully took an excellent kick pass from Golden Boots Seers and Connor, returning from his shoulder surgery in the summer picked up his first of a double before half time.
So often the Cambo story in these situations is 'foot off the gas' and they then go on to concede some easy tries but they emerged after the break motivated to keep the opposition to the single score that they had gleaned in a tough first half and although H&F came close on several occasions it was the black and ambers who did all the scoring in the 2nd half with 2 great individual tries by #9 Max in the first 10 followed by some exciting threequarters play which saw Connor adding his second and Jak getting onto the scoreboard before another dart by Max, in time added on, brought the young 9# his third of the afternoon.

So what a result for the skipper, 100 caps and 10 tries.
I can remember Birdy making his debut for the 1s in his teens and so complete a footballer he was even then, we saw him start on the wing and in the second row in then same season and this flexibility eventually saw him settle @7. However the willingness to play wherever he was needed just shows what a committed club man he is and his calm manner, his outstanding performances and his overall approach really has always made him a very special skipper.

For those of you who are unable to make many of the games I will attempt to put names and positions together.
The front row is simply awesome with new boys Sean and Marlen joining Antonio and Bazza while the second row of Shed (who unfortunately seemed to pick up a shoulder injury late in the game), coupled with Hill Billy Harrison (there are too many Bens in the side!!) are probably the most athletic pair in the League and are equally at home in the back row while the loose forwards are simply amazing with Birdy @7, Hughsey who was outstanding today - was that because he is feeling pressure from BLS and JLS or the fact that he has just had a new son – congratulations to you and your lovely wife Hughsey, and finally another great acquisition in Ben Henderson who had a great game at #2 against Welsh in the 2nd round while having a stormer today @8 – (that's how its done Clarkey!!).

The new combination at 9 &10 sees Max truly making the 9 shirt his own as he progresses in leaps and bounds while his confidence grows while Golden Boots Alex has also brought structure and control in the threequarters.
Todays centre partnership of Jak and Connor were quite special and again with Youngy and Brizzle waiting in the wings there seems to be real quality for Laids and Max to work with, and out wide we have Bowers, looking a lot more confident and switched on this season while our Fiery Fireman doesn't seem to have lost any of his enthusiasm for the game although giving him the ball deep in his own half to run up the hill away from the clubhouse did seem a bit harsh!!! and finally Laids has more choices with Luke and Max both quality 15s.

So with Welsh away at Jersey next week and the black and ambers also at the seaside (Brighton) while Stags and Wimbledon will do battle there is little doubt that there will be some interesting changes to the leader board.

And Finally, although there is some way to go the C&Ws seem to have improved since last season with their much vaunted 'attack focussed' game plan and have moved out of the bottom 2, a position they seem to have occupied for far too long and with 5 players selected for the Welsh AI they could almost claim to be the 5th Welsh region.

And for the very keen eyed amongst you the pic is of Birdy but last week at Tunbridge.