Casual Cam lose opener at Hammers

So today we saw League rugby return after 18 months although by 16.00 hrs any Cam supporter who had made the journey to Hurlingham Park it could probably have stayed away for a bit longer as the black and ambers found it hard to settle against a home team who were clearly motivated to claim the points in their first season in LS1.
The black and ambers included a few new faces, George Owen and Louis Flynn in the backs and Connor Diplock hooking while we had Murph on the bench along with Ben Lovell-Smith an ex academy star son of Justin who played for the club for more years than we have records for.

The game saw Cam kick off and when they regained possession they soon forced a penalty on the home 10m line and our new slim line Smarty made no mistake with just 3 mins on the clock.
We saw George take the restart and he made good metres before the ball was pushed out wide but a good attacking possibility was pulled back for a forward pass.
Cam were soon in the Hammers 22 but a missed lineout saw play move down into their own half again.
At this stage things were scrappy from both sides but on 20 mins a great move saw George run a great line off Shorty and he put Ash away only for the winger to be tackled 10m short but from the ensuing penalty Smarty set up a 5m lineout and a good controlled drive saw Ozzie Greg emerge from under the heap of bodies claiming the try.

Smarty was unlucky with the conversion but the momentum seemed to be slowly going the black and ambers way and we even saw the first 50/22 implementation when Louis bounced the kick from inside the Cam half, deep into the opposition 22. This time however Cam were not able to turn the pressure into points and a few mins before half time Hammersmith took a quick penalty in the Cam half and scored a try out wide which was converted making the score 7-8 and that remained the score at half time despite an almost identical move by the home side saw the winger lose the ball close to the try line.

Clearly this score had a very positive effect on the opposition as right from the start of the second half they regained possession and sloppy defence by Cam saw the hammers score in the corner with only a minute played. The kick was unsuccessful making the score 12-8.

Cam did wake up momentarily and we saw a neat backs move send Ash away but he was bundled into touch just short.

The black and ambers were by now really struggling to get their game together although the scrum saw the black and ambers with a slight edge, lineouts were sloppy and frankly without the ferocious tackling of flanker Shawa and also a number of butchered chances the home side could have been further ahead.
After a couple of changes we saw Oyoni almost through a big gap but the ball was knocked forward however increasingly the pressure was coming from the home side and when a black and amber defensive kick was charged down the hammers winger collected and touched down under the posts to make the score 19-8 after 70 mins.

The final scrappy 10 mins saw Cam striving to get back into the game but unable to play the controlled, keep ball rugby that was required to breach the home defence.

So not the start DoR Risey was looking for and clearly he and the coaching team will have lots of work ons but frankly after so long away from rugby many of the boys looked to me, significantly slower and will need to sharpen up their game if the side is to earn a promotion spot at the end of the season.

Next week we have the Presidents Day at Watchetts when we entertain Farnham – ko 3.00. For those wanting to attend the lunch you must book your tickets via the club website ASAP

Pic by Dinger shows Brizzle our centre taking on the Hammersmith tighthead