On the 22nd of March, Camberley Men's 1st team took on Horsham in a Regional 1 South Central league fixture. Cambo travelled an hour ready for a 3 pm kick-off. Conditions were a little grey although the weather held out for the match.

In the Regional 1 South Central League, there are 12 teams playing level 5 English Club rugby. Camberley sits comfortably in 5th place, with Horsham in 11th. Horsham, who narrowly escaped relegation last season, have 28 points and aim to catch up to Tunbridge Wells in 10th with 33. Camberley are two points behind Wimbledon on 66.

The home side kicked the game off placing the ball deep into the Camberley’s half. Camberley successfully cleared the ball and then won a penalty just off the 22m. A rumbling maul allowed Camberley to shift the ball wide, with an attempted interception from the home side giving the first scrum to Camberley. Winning a scrum penalty on the 22m, the visitors kicked to the corner with a lineout on the 5m.

After being pushed back from Horsham’s 5m, a clever attacking grubber kick from Camberley led to a lineout to Horsham on their 5m line, where Camberley turned the ball over. Connor Hayhow ran a strong line after the ball was shifted wide to score the first try of the game with Alex Seers converting. Camberley 7 Horsham 0.

Camberley showed some scrum dominance after demolishing the Horsham pack, resulting in winning and turning the ball over. Some great hands gave Matt Bowers room to turn the burners on and stepped inside where he was tackled but earned Camberley a scrum on the 5m between the posts. Unfortunately, a penalty for double movement turned the ball over and gave Horsham an escape.

With some great attacking rugby, Camberley came back into the home side’s 22m where Connor Hayhow picked a great line to score his second. Alex Seers then converted a difficult kick from the edge. Camberley 14 Horsham 0.

After a good defensive set, involving Ben Henderson putting in a shot that will be felt in the morning, he then linked up with scrum-half Max McCarthy to make a run from Camberley 22m to Horsham’s 22. This then was turned over, but after the ball switched hands a few times, Camberley’s scrum won another penalty, which gave them a platform within the home side's 22m to run a play from. Shortly after, a second penalty was won. Camberley kicked to the corner, where a driving maul saw Ben Harrison break off and drive over the line. Unfortunately, the try wasn’t converted. Camberley 19 Horsham 0.

Even with Horsham camped on Camberley's 5m line, the defence held strong driving them back after every attempt, leading to Jak Rossiter picking an excellent line off from a lineout. He made his way deep into the opposite half where Camberley looked like they were going to score but a knock-on ended the half before they could. Half Time: Camberley 19 Horsham 0.

Straight off from kick-off, Horsham looked like a different team clearing their lines before they won a scrum penalty on their 22m. A well-timed pass broke Camberley’s line resulting in the home side scoring their first points of the game. Camberley 19 Horsham 7.
Winning their first scrum penalty the momentum started to shift towards the home side especially after Camberley received a yellow card, which put them down to 14 men.

Camberley managed to hold out for a while with 14 on the pitch, however, a fortunate bounce off a box kick gave the home side their second try which was converted. Camberley 19 Horsham 14.

A good defensive set followed from Camberley, especially Rossiter who kept the wide channels protected with driving hits. For a while, play was stuck on the halfway line with both teams trading possession through turnovers and knock-ons. Horsham were the ones to break the stalemate after they broke through the line to score under the post for an easy conversion. Camberley 19 Horsham 21.

Now behind, Camberley managed to force a knock-on and then won the scrum penalty which they then kicked to touch. Camberley’s maul met a strong defence so had to break off, unfortunately, this led to Camberley being knocked into touch for a Horsham penalty 10 from their try line. After Horsham fought back up the pitch, they jumped on the opportunity of a dropped ball to score another converted try in the corner. Camberley 19 Horsham 28

To try to put a nail in the coffin for Camberley, the home side went for a penalty after an unfortunate high tackle although this was missed. From here Horsham's defence all around the park tightened further with Camberley finding little to no progress in breaking It. However, Camberley's try-line defence proved to be formidable, winning penalty after penalty in their half pushing up the field until the final whistle call an end to the match.

FT Camberley 19 Horsham 28

The most accurate way to sum up today's fixture would be a true game of two halves, both teams dominated their half of the game with Horsham the victors at the end. A few missed tackles and growing penalty count was what separated the teams in the end. Camberley can look forward to their next game against Old Alleynians (away) on the 29th March with Wimbledon the following week on the 5th April at home.