Six Try Ash Burns Dartfordians

The visitors to Watchetts on yet another bright and warm September afternoon were Dartfordians newly promoted as winners of London SE2 last seasonand with a good away win at Totts already under their belts.
So the Watchetts faithful were out in force to see if last weeks first half performance could be replicated.
In the event they witnessed a demonstration of open, pacey and brilliant rugby which blew the visitors away and this despite Dartford having the upper hand for most of the 80 mins at scrum time and also at the breakdown but who had no answer to the class of the Cam backline eventually shipping 11 glorious tries.
Today also saw the Club's first official Ladies day when the players wives, partners and girlfriends came together to enjoy many glasses of prosecco etc - with host Lils immaculately dressed for a Saturday afternoon jealously keeping this bevvy of beauties to himself for a large part of the day - but seriously ladies it was absolutely great to see you all there and I personally hope that this can become a regular feature at Saturday home games during the rest of the season (Much as it pains me to report It does seem that Lils did a cracking job even though he only got the gig because he is out injured)
So with the visitors delayed slightly they seemed not to have been fazed by the M25 and a lineout drive of 20m showed the Cam 8 what they were to expect this afternoon and they were soon in the Cam 22 but great defence forced a turnover and we then saw TommyA take play from one 22 to another in a typical Tommy break when I believe not even he knows where he is heading. However he was brought down illegally and so Smarty turned up to knock over the pen for a 3-0 score after just 5 mins.
The restart saw Cam again take the ball forward and they were a tad unlucky when prop Greg just put a foot in touch in the visitors 22 and when Cam managed to hold up the visitors lineout drive they managed to win the resultant scrum and quick hands saw the ball reach Ash who stormed over for the first try of the afternoon and with Smarty converting from the touchline the score moved to 8-0 after 8 mins.
We then saw a period when the visitors were camped inside the Cam 22 and awarded a number of 5m lineouts but on each occasion they were thwarted but eventually Cam took play back into the midfield and from a lineout the ball was moved sweetly across the back line with The Flying Fijian making a powerful break before feeding Ash who roared in for another converted try on 20 mins - making the score 17-0.
The visitors got onto the scoreboard with an unconverted try on 28 mins and they then proceeded to spend more time in the Cam 22 winning numerous 5m lineouts which were all well defended by the black and ambers but eventually their defence was questioned by the official and so were down to 14 players for 10 mins.
Rather than being the crushing blow which helped the visitors, this action actually fired up the home side and from being penned in their own 22 for some considerable time the defiant 14 drove play back up to halfway and from a lineout the Flying Fijian flew through the visitors defence for his first of the afternoon and a score of 24-5 on 38 mins and almost from the restart another Cam turnover saw Greg make good ground before feeding JoshL and finally Ash for his third of the afternoon.
Then on the stroke of half time great recovery by TommyD and Mac at the base of a retreating scrum saw Mac punch his way through the first defensive line before feeding Oyoni who charged over for a try and with Smarty again adding the extras with a great touchline conversion the score at the break was 38-5.
The second half started with a period of scrappy play and TommyD having to go off with an injured knee but a charge by The Warrior which should have resulted in a try took play into the visitors red zone but a quick lineout saw Hasty out wide charge forward before presenting Ash with yet another try.
Cam were soon on the attack again via another break by Oyoni and when the poor defensive kick was collected by Josh Wright the ball went through many hands before Ash crossed again for his fifth try of the afternoon.
Again the restart was well managed by Smarty and the black and ambers moved back into the visitors 22 and it was crystal clear the Josh Wright had decided that Big Bro Ash would not be the only Wright on the scorecard this afternoon and from a lineout we saw the young centre slice through the increasingly flimsy defence to dot down under the posts making the score 55-5 after 55 mins.
Dartford then pinched an unconverted try almost from the restart but further tries from JoshL, HT and Ash whose 6th try equalled the record held by Jono Elvin set in the 2016/17 season for a final score of 76-10.
So despite the difficulties encountered up front this was again a tremendous result although Risey and his coaches no doubt will have lots of work on's this week in training in their relentless quest for continuous improvement.
In fairness, despite several disruptive injuries the pack stuck at their task pretty well and TommyD and HT did well at the base of what at best was an unsteady scrum while my MoM, Smarty showed again how he is maturing and his running of the backs was excellent with all 11 tries coming from them - most unusual for this squad. The rest of the backs had outstanding games both in attack and defence with the physicality of Oyoni and JoshL and the smooth pace of the Wright Bros plus of course our veteran 15 TommyA who is playing some of the best rugby of his career.
This was another good weekend for the club with the 2s winning 38-14 against Maidenhead 2s in the League and the 3s beating Farnborough 2s 26-7 while we also ran a 4s team at the Surrey 10s competition.
Next week 1s and 2s are away at Chichester while the 3s start their League campaign away at Cranleigh.
And Finally - After a pretty poor first period against Brizzle the C&Ws clearly reacted to Johans half time talk with an superb second half display which blew the upstarts from down the road away with outstanding contributions by Cips and Polledri (why did EJ let him go to Italy??)