Despite the power cut Cam have just too much for battling Horsham

This Saturday got off to a very inauspicious start with the hosts, Horsham struggling to organise some form of power at their clubhouse following the passage of Storm Eunice on Friday.
To their immense credit the Sussex club worked a minor miracle to ensure that the game would be played, acquiring 2 temporary and sometimes temperamental generators to support some of the basic functions required eg the pre match lunch was reported to have been delicious but eaten in semi darkness.
Despite this distraction the game was always going to present a major challenge to Cam for whom this was the 7th game on the bounce since the start of the year, knowing that any slip up would seriously dent their ambition to win the League.
So the side emerged from their dimly lit changing room to discover that what was clearly 'the son of Eunice' was upon them, heavy rain, which persisted for at least 40 mins, carried by a biting wind which cut through to the marrow of anyone foolhardy enough to be watching events from the touchline.
In the end, despite these poor conditions, we witnessed a full on clash between 2 sides both desperate to claim the honours and despite a fighting display by the green and whites, Cam, although nowhere near their fluent best, just had too much power up front and so claimed the 5 points and in doing so ended Horsham's recent good run while extending their own winning run to 13 games.

The game started with Horsham playing with the wind and from the off they moved to the Cam 5m line with an excellent 50/22 kick but despite a mean looking lineout drive the black and amber's defence stood firm and eventually the pressure was released and Cam slowly took play upfield however they suffered the loss of ever present Big Dom with and injured ankle but with about 15 mins played the black and ambers had a series of scrums in the Horsham redzone and it was clear that there was only ever going to be one winner in this area of play and after what seemed an age the official awarded Cam a penalty try and Horsham were temporarily reduced to 14.

Almost from the restart we saw a flash of Cam magic when, after driving the Horsham pack backwards at a scrum in the Cam 22 the ball came to Josh Wright who released The Fireman and he raced up the touchline before drawing the last defender before putting Ash over for an unconverted try with 20 mins played.

The second quarter saw Cam disjointed and lacking in concentration and this allowed the home side to come back into things with a successful drive of their own and on the stroke of half time they scored again to bring the scores level at 12 each.

The second half also started poorly for Cam when, despite winning their scrum, the ball went lose and Horsham took full advantage to score a converted try with just a couple of minutes of the second half played.

For the next 15 mins or so Cam worked hard to bring things back but a combination of physical defence and also poor skills in the horrible conditions but we then saw a great break by George take play to within a few meters of the Horsham line and following another series of scrum penalties we eventually saw The Ozzie Mole claim a good forwards try and with Liam slotting the kick the scores were again level.

The fight for a winning score saw both sides stretching every sinew but, just as many of us were resigning ourselves to sharing the spoils another searing, powerful break by the Fireman saw him held up again just short and we then saw Josh Wright force his way over to claim the winning score and the tpb.

So in the end it was mission accomplished for the black and ambers and while not looking anything like their best they endured the horrendous conditions and stuck together, working hard for each other to claim the spoils.
In these conditions it was not likely that we would see too much action outside #10 but in fact everytime young H or George got the ball they created mayhem in the opposition with H using his youthful speed and balance to carve his way through their defence while George used his skill, experience, strength and not inconsiderable pace to great effect.
However the plaudits must go again to the pack who never once took a step backwards and in particular the front row of Ozzie Mole, Clarkey, Bazza and replacement Connor who absolutely dominated their opponents for the full 80 mins winning countless scrum time penalties and were unlucky not to win a second penalty try during their second half siege.

So Risey, Mal Sam, Ash and Hughsey got what they demanded at the first team meeting at the beginning of the year, seven 5 point wins, and now the squad will enjoy a week off to hopefully rest and recover before returning to battle this time to defend their new position at the top of the league.

The next game is on March 5th ko 15.00 v Cobham.

And Finally – no C&Ws this week as its their by week – rumour has it that they have missed the storms this week as they are at a warm weather camp in Tenerife!!

The pic by Dinger shows The Mole, Clarkey and Bazza - would you want to pack down against them?