Camberley RFC will enjoy watching this weekend’s England v Wales match all the more after winning a prize of 100 pies and 100 pints courtesy of O2, as part of the O2 Touch joint initiative with the RFU.

O2, proud sponsors of England Rugby, are rewarding eight rugby clubs, one in each region,  for their excellent work in recruiting new players and increasing participation in the local area with this special O2 For England ‘pie and pint’ pack to be delivered in time for the latest match in this year’s exciting RBS 6 Nations.

The pack for Camberley to use in their O2 For England Club Screening at the Watchetts Recreation Ground includes 100 pies and 100 pints, flags, flyers, England kit, beer mats and a signed ball.

The ‘Hope & Glory’ pie – specially created by Pieminister for the RBS 6 Nations – contains British beef steak and smoked bacon, while the vegetarian ‘St George’ pie is filled with baked beans, button mushrooms and smoked cheddar cheese. The beer comes in 440ml cans from Greene King IPA, Official Beer of England Rugby.

The pies & pints should go down well in the London Two South West side’s clubhouse when the England v Wales match kicking off at 4pm will be shown on the large TV screens in the main bar, the Scruffs bar and the downstairs cafe.

The O2 For England campaign builds on the success of O2’s Get up for England campaign that took place last Autumn when England played in New Zealand and aims to galvanise the nation in support of the England team. The campaign also aims to take the O2 experience out of the stadium and straight to the fans in clubs, homes and pubs across the country. There are 5,000 pie & pint packs available to O2 customers for each England RBS 6 Nations match available via their O2 phone.  For more information go towww.O2ForEngland.co.uk

England interim head coach Stuart Lancaster said: “Having the support of the fans, wherever they are, is a real boost for the players.O2 For England is a perfect way to help fans cheer on the team.”

Surrey rugby development officer Martin MacTaggart said: “Camberley have grown in the last year with an amazing five new teams in the 13 years old to adult age bracket.

“The club is developing the links to its students and younger adult players through the Surrey Under 21 competition, helping the club to grow and establish a base for these younger players.

“Their ‘can do’ attitude is personified by mini and youth chair Ian Russell, Tom Hazelden, Dave Harvey and Roger Berry, while our community rugby coach Neil Sweeney supported and promoted the work the club has been doing.”

Ian Russell of Camberley RFC said: “We will be showing England against Wales in the clubhouse and looking forward to munching on the pies and downing the pints, and hopefully celebrating an England victory.

“The first XV have an away match at Twickenham RFC that has been rescheduled to kick off at 1pm so our team and the travelling support can get back to the club.

“We will be offering the O2 pies and pints on a first come, first served basis using tickets available from 1pm before the first televised game, Ireland v Italy, and serving the food and drink at half-time of the big match.

Playing with the elements in the first half Cam went ahead after 5 mins with a penalty kicked by Ed Smith and then extended this lead only 4 minutes later when, from a 5 m scrum close to the visitors line the ball was moved swiftly to  blindside winger Dan Lewis who touched down. The conditions didn’t make for open rugby and with Wimbledon’s  defence it was difficult for the black and ambers to make ground and the visitors eventually replied after 25 mins going over after a quickly taken penalty close to the Cam line.

On 30 mins the visitors took the lead with a penalty but this was matched by Ed Smith on 35 mins. Cam then lost a player to the sin bin and in the dying minutes of the half Wimbledon took advantage of the extra man to score a converted try despite heroic defensive work by centre Phil Andrews, and endd the half leading  11-17.

With 5 mins played in the second half the visitors winger was red carded for butting and punching one of the Cam forwards and this should have been the opportunity for the black and ambers to exert some pressure but the visitors defence was outstanding all afternoon and all of Cams efforts to close the gap were repelled and as the half closed the visitors actually increased their margin of victory with a brace of penalties.

All of the forwards worked hard with flanker Andy Goodman outstanding in the loose but both backs and forwards were generally unable to escape the vice like grip of the Wimbledon defence.

Despite the loss coaches Gloss and JJ will be pleased with the attitude showed by the players, clearly building on the win v Effingham and they will know that if they can improve the precision of the squad on the park this will inevitably bring the rewards the squad are striving for.

The 2′s continued their fine run with a 56-0 win over Bec Old Boys.

The 1s have the rearranged fixture v Twickenham next week – PLEASE NOTE the new ko is 13.00

On Wednesday 15th February the club was lucky enough to receive a visit from England prop Alex Corbisiero as part of the RBS Rugbyforce initiative. An especially well-attended Wednesday evening training session across the youth section saw Alex join in with all the squads for 5 or 10 minutes each, imparting the benefit of his experience and giving us all an insight into rugby at the very highest level. He spent well over an hour under the lights and finished the session working with the ladies and girls squad.

Alex then spent an hour in the bar answering questions from an enthusiastic audience where we learnt that Jonny Wilkinson is the best player he has ever played with or against, the recent England wins were his best ever matches, he owes everything to his time under the tutelage of our very own Alun Rise and he even played at Camberley a few times, but for Cobham! Finally, he patiently signed countless balls, shirts and other pieces of kit and posed for numerous photos.

It is encouraging to know that the future of English forward play is in such impressive, friendly and gracious hands – we are all very grateful to Alex and wish him well for the remainder of the 6 Nations.

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After a run of 6 defeats the pressure was on for Cam to turn things around which clearly was going to be a challenge as their visitors, Effingham and Leatherhead, had recorded a big win the previous week at Chobham.

The start could not have been worse when the black and ambers were penalised at the very first scrum, straight from the ko and found themselves 3 points down.

The next 15 mins saw both sides trying to achieve some sort of dominance until a brilliant switch move by the home threequarters saw Dan Lewis race over from close on halfway to score an outstanding try which was converted by Ed Smith.

The game at this stage was very  scrappy with Cam on the wrong side of a high penalty count and in this period until half time they conceded a try and penalty in addition to receiving a yellow card. Even though they were behind it was clear to many Cam supporters that if they could better manage the interface with the ref then the game was theirs for the asking.

So the second half started with the black and ambers 7-13 down and the home spectators more than a little confused by the large number of penalties their team had conceded in the first half. However their fears were soon allayed when their team started the second period at a much higher level of intensity and soon were awarded a penalty close to the vistors line. Opting for the scrum the ball then moved through several phases until debutant George ‘The Doc’ forced his way over and with Ed Smith converting Cam were back in the lead.

With less than 15 mins gone in the second half Cam again forced play up to the Effingham line and from the resultant lineout drive Russ Kirby peeled off the drive to touch down. Again Golden Boots Smith  converted from wide out to make the score 21-13. At this stage the visitors had lost their competitive edge and their supporters were silenced when on 55 mins the rampant black and ambers scored their bonus point try – again from a lineout drive this time lock Pete Hill, returning after a long injury break, claimed the touch down and with Ed Smith converting again the lead stretched to 28-13.

Effingham did enjoy a period camped in the home 22 but the black and ambers defence was much too strong and at the end it was Cam who were dominant with Ed Smith kicking a penalty to cap a thoroughly deserved victory.

This was a much improved performance from the home side with debutants George ‘The Doc’  and Ed ‘Golden Boot’ Smith adding to the pack and the midfield respectively but this was without doubt an excellent team effort with 1-18 all putting in a tremendous performance and, once the wires were uncrossed with the ref, they all showed what an accomplished side they can be.

The happy home supporters were further buoyed to hear that the 2nd XV continued on their winning way by defeating Wimbledon 29 – 14 which should see them still top of their league.

With the 1st team away to Twickenham next Sat coaches Gloss and JJ will no doubt  work to build on the confidence and spirit which flowed through the side particularly in the second 40.

RogerB

With a run of poor results in recent weeks Camberley looked to halt the slide against local rivals Chobham. Despite an improved performance the black and ambers came away with another L in the loss column.

Camberley started the brightest attacking Chobham from the kick off the pressure played off with the home side being caught off side in mid field. Centre Jayde Cruickshank’s penalty attempt from the halfway line fell just short of the uprights.

Chobham then took the game to Camberley scoring two quick fire penalties inside 4 minutes, they then increased the lead to 15-0 from a penalty kick. Camberley’s cause was not helped with two sin bins, however, Cruickshank kicked a penalty to get Camberley on the board 15-3, but Chobham finished the half the stronger when their scrum half crashed over from a short range move.

The second period started badly for Camberley, Chobham secured the bonus point within a minute of the restart to open up a useful 25-3 lead. Camberley then enjoyed their best period of the game, a try by debutant wing Greg Strong, and the conversion by Cruickshank gave Camberley a sniff of getting back into the game, despite their best efforts Camberley were unable to reduce the deficit and claim a losing bonus point.

Report and picture courtesy Lee @ scrumpix

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

Camberley U7s, U8,s and U9s were at Twickenham on the 27th Dec as part of the Big 4 Game when unbeaten Harlequins played Saracens. The attendance of 82000  broke the existing world record attendance at a regular rugby game at club level.

The day started very early for most of them as their mini tournaments started @ 12.30. In an effort to let as many of the players experience Twickenham the U8s took 23 players and they all had a run during the 12 min game – which must have been a bit of a nightmare for the 4th official!!!

The u7s took 16 and basically had a complete changeover at halftime.

The u9s took 19 of their squad and started with a practice game as their opposition, Old Ruts, arrived late – when they did eventually play the result was a draw with 2 tries to each side.

All squads were very fortunate  to then be photographed on the hallowed turf – courtesy of our happy snapper Lee who happens to be accredited by the RFU to do such things!!(perhaps thats why his pictures for the club turn out to be so good)

When the games had been completed the squads made their way back to The Stoop where they were fed and entertained by several Quins players and around 4.00pm  then made the journey across the A316 just one more time to enjoy the Big 4 Game.

All of the squads reported that it had been a wonderful experience for the young players and their Mums and Dads etc.

Many thanks to Gerald Kelly of Quins who, I am assured, was the man behind it all and lets hope that we get some of our squads invited to next years Big 5 Game – what a way for any young player to end 2011 – best wishes to you all for 2012

Roger

Pics provided by Lee @ scrumpix