On a bright afternoon, Cam opened 2012 with a difficult game against current league leaders Gosport whose only defeat of the season so far was to the black and ambers in September. With the long running injury and non availability issues coach Ben Glossop was again in the position that he had no real selection choices to make and the team saw first starts of the season for several of the side.
The game started brightly enough and after only 5 mins Jayde’s penalty attempt from half way was only just wide but the home side soon fell into their old ways, conceding too many penalties and falling off tackles to easily and on 15 mins Gosport opened the scoring with a try when the scrum half picked up at a ruck and ran through a gaping hole to score under the posts.
Gosport at this stage did not look like league leaders but went further ahead with a back row move following a scrum close to the Cam line. From the restart Warren Milne made a typical bullocking run which took play deep into the Gosport half but sloppy handling by the black and ambers saw the initiative taken away again. As if they didn’t have enough challenges on the pitch Cam were then reduced to 14 men when Pat was harshly adjudged to have tackled high – always a challenge for a 6′ plus guy tackling a small opponent who is also ducking.
At this time Gosport were also coming into their own, a fit and physical side who are clearly well drilled and play for each other and so it was inevitable that they would use the extra man advantage and they duly added 2 tries on 30 and 35 mins to make the score 20-0. With Pat having served his 10 mins Cam then lost skipper Warren Milne to a ‘team’ yellow just before half time and Gosport again took full advantage of the extra man to add 2 tries in a 10 min period after half time to make the score 30-0 before the black and ambers were at full strength again.
Cam conceded 2 further tries before the end of the game but kept trying to the end and Dan Lewis almost spoilt the visitors recent record when he was just unable to collect the ball when he had just a quick burn up to the oppositions line.
In the end Cam were well beaten by a competent but not outstanding team and will now need to regroup before their local derby against Chobham next week.
Picture courtesy of Lee @ scrumpix
