Cam pushed all the way before claiming 5 points

Over the last decade visitors, Ironsides, have always been tough competitors as both clubs made their way up from the Surrey Leagues to their current places at Level 6 and so every Cam supporter knew that their side was in for a tough 80 mins on a cold grey Saturday at Watchetts. What transpired was a very physical encounter, perhaps lacking in the finer skills that we have become accustomed to but 36 young men fighting to ensure that their team came away with the spoils. In the end the black and ambers had just too much physicality, organisation and desire for the plucky squad from South London who will have no doubt enjoyed their coach trip home in the knowledge that they had given their all in what turned out to be a very close encounter.
The game started with the visitors kicking towards the clubhouse and Cam soon let their intentions be known when, following a number of phases skipper Tom Chennell darted through the middle of a ruck before drawing the last defender and his pop pass allowed the veteran centre/winger Ash, to canter the final 5m and dot down with just 4 mins on the clock.
Restarts, which seemed to be an issue for the black and ambers all game, eventually saw Cam move back into the Ironsides half and several scrums and lineouts showed that the visitors were definitely second best in these areas but what the Irons lacked at the set pieces they more than made up for with their aggressive defence which, while testing the offside line, managed to disrupt many of the home side's threequarter moves.
The next score came on 19 mins when a move clearly modelled on Skivs C&Ws saw H put a scrum penalty into touch on the visitors 5m line and a good lineout take and drive saw the maul initially move infield before Tom again fed Ash who dotted down for another converted try.
Cam then seemed to revert to type, foot off the pedal and always looking for the impossible pass, and to their credit the visitors took full advantage of this lapse to score 2 tries on 25 and 32 mins to bring the scoreline back to 14-12. This clearly had the effect of winding up the black and ambers and from the restart they attacked and eventually playing a penalty advantage they stormed back and great hands by at least half of the team eventually saw Ash again dot down in the corner for an unconverted try and Cam added to the visitors woes when they again won a scrum penalty, 5m lineout, great catch and drive with this time Big Sam claiming the touch down, much to the annoyance of Ashley!! and so the score at the break had moved to 24-12.

The second half started brightly as H, Fireman George and Millfield took the ball deep into the Irons red zone and several phases later everyone, except the official, who actually had a very good game, thought that Bazza had scored as he drove over the line only to be penalised for a double movement.
For this period it was all Cam and another break by Tom was again thwarted by the desperate visitors defence and they then made things more interesting when a kick pass to their winger saw them dot down for a converted try on 57 mins bringing them back into lbp territory.
The next period of the game again saw Cam on the attack but over ambition and also lack of commitment together with a huge defensive effort by the visitors meant that the next score, a penalty by H did not come until the 70th min and as their defensive efforts began to tell on the visitors a delicate kick pass from 'little bro' Josh to 'big bro' Ash saw the centre cross for the final score of the day, his fourth try of the afternoon and a final score of 32-17.

So on a very cool, grey Saturday this was not the performance that many had come to expect but ultimately 5 points and no apparent injuries must be a good result for Risey, Mal and the rest of the coaching staff.
Not a great day for open rugby but ultimately everyone put in a great shift although this week's special mention is to hooker Connor who made some telling tackles around the park and his lineout darts, which saw him consistently hit Shawa, who is the shortest player on the squad, at the tail of the lineout were spot on. It was also good to see Birdy starting for the 1s for the first time since his knee injury and he was clearly playing for a starting shirt next week.
So with 15 points from the first 3 games of 2022 the squad and supporters are all looking forward to next Saturdays crunch game against leaders London Welsh.
It's also great to see the 2s begin to gel as they travelled to Brighton and claimed the spoils with a 24-33 win to some way compensate for the 99 points they shipped in the first round game.

And Finally – it looks like the C&Ws have cemented their 2nd position in the Challenge Cup as they are thrashed Perpignan 68-19 in a very one sided encounter.

Picture by Dinger shows Shawa collecting one of Connor's long throws at the tail of the lineout