Cam Too Strong for Defiant Hove

Saturday saw Watchetts full to the brim with Rugby as the club hosted a celebrationfor the life of club stalwart Richard Jones with a game between Camberley U15s and an U15 side from Cwm Gors one of Richard's earlier clubs followed by a game between Reading and Camberley Vets his two other clubs together with the 1s and 2s League games against struggling Hove.
Many of the players held a 1 minute silence to start the day's proceedings and the 1s game saw a 1 minute of applause before the kick off.
With Hove anchored to the bottom of the table, without a league win all season, the result seemed easy to call but a somewhat patchy performance by Cam coupled with a very solid display by the visitors actually led to a much closer encounter than the score may suggest as Hove provided a very solid scrum, a good lineout and reliable defence in the centre of the field and it was only the black and ambers pace out wide coupled with their greater physicality at key moments which provided the difference.
Cam, playing away from the clubhouse were quickly on the back foot when, from the kick off, they made a mess of things which resulted in a penalty which the visitors gratefully accepted.
Cam, however were soon in the lead when, following a big burst by Macca followed by a pen which took play into the red zone a good miss pass saw Oyoni squeeze into the corner on 7mins.
Cam soon returned to the Hove 22 and on 16 mins doubled their score when Ash crossed from close range however almost from the kick off Hove intercepted during an unnecessarily over optimistic Camberley play and touched down under the posts to even things up at 10-10.
Straight from the restart Cam reclaimed the ball and after several phases, good hands saw Oyoni take a beautiful inside pass and although he still had plenty to do his power and pace saw him cross wide out on the left for a 15-10 scoreline after 22 mins.
Generally Cam seemed to have settled down and on 30 mins we again saw them play a series of phases before the ball reached Dyl who crossed for a well worked score and the try bonus point.
Despite a couple of very abrasive breaks by Macca and some exciting runs by debutant winger Callum Mactaggart things became much more fragmented for a period until a good lineout drive by Cam saw the #8 spin away and cross for a try which Smarty converted making the half time score 27-10.
The second half started with the spectacle of prop Ozzie Greg collecting a high defensive kick and starting an attack which eventually saw Hove with a lineout 5m from their line. A great steal by Ben Harrison, who had another outstanding game, saw the ball come to Dyl who drove for the line and when he was held up, Hughsey was there to dive over the bodies to claim the score with Smarty adding the extras. And within 5 mins we saw a very similar score but this time it was Ozzie Greg who burrowed his way, almost mole like, for another converted try.
With the game well and truly wrapped up at this stage and also due to the dogged defence of the visitors things did seem to become a tad more scrappy and it was fully 10 mins before the next score which came courtesy of Oyoni who made ground on the right before TommyA burst through to touch down under the posts on 60 mins.
Another Hove lineout on their line saw Hughsey leap high like a salmon to claim the steal and a good drive saw Dan Harvey last man up with a smile which would have been more appropriate if he had won the lottery.
In fairness to Hove they never gave up and as last week at Chobham clearly with thoughts on a warm shower the Cam defence became a tad sloppy and the visitors got their just rewards for a tough afternoon with an excellent score in the dying minutes.
So another 9 try win is clearly a great result and it was good to see Risey mixing his squad up a little to prepare enough players for the run in to the end of the season for as well as Callum playing well on the wing we saw Tom Chennel introduced at 9 and his performance was extremely promising and it is clear that the coaching team will be looking to use his game management experience in the upcoming games against the top 3.
The 2s had another resounding victory 57-7 over Hove 2s to remain unbeaten in Zoo3 and the 3s visited Chobham and recorded a good win 14-76.
Next week the 1s have a week off while the 2s are due to play Dorking 2s at Watchetts while the 3s travel to Guildford for a Surrey KO game.

And Finally – well Friday night was clearly the night to be a C&W fan with an outstanding performance against The Chiefs which saw them out perform the visitors all across the park to claim a 24- 17 win despite the heart stopping 16 phases they defended on their line before the visitors knocked on – so its Bring on The Sorries – same time same place next week.