Erdington travelled to Camp Hill on Saturday and after the 2 minutes silence to mark Remembrance Sunday observed by all, the game started at a fast pace, with no team taking overall advantage of their possession or territory. Erdington however we’re then awarded a penalty easily within kickable range and after a short discussion a shot was called, Tom Findon stepped forward and dissected the posts Erdington up by 3.
Erdingtons pressure was relentless and Camp Hill gave away another penalty but this time with their heads up, a quick tap was taken, the ball was moved around the park between forwards and backs eventually finding itself in the hands of Ryan Hatton who punched his was through the resilient Camp Hill defence and scored his first try for the club, I’m sure there’s more to come from him! Try converted. This seemed to inspire Camp Hill who made great gains in territory, however Erdington’s defence remained resilient and however much possession Camp Hill had they couldn’t break through the Erdington back line, the pressure was starting to tell on Erdington as they were giving away too many penalties. Camp Hill had had enough and decide they needed some points on the board and duly kicked the next penalty. This appeared to give Erdington a lift and a belief, that their defence was impenetrable, after the Captain Luke Badland had spoken to his players about giving away silly penalties they appeared to dry up. Erdington just before half time went on another attack shipping the ball out to the backs and then with some excellent support play from Erdington’s back row, Dan Thewlis saw the smallest of gaps but went for it and it payed dividends as the Camp Hill defence couldn’t match his speed and he dotted down under the posts, try converted. The teams turned around at half time with the score at 17 – 3 in favour of Erdington.
The second half started with the same pace and intensity as the first, Camp Hill appeared to have a spring in their step and using the slight advantage of the slope took the play to Erdington and spent some time in the Erdington half but their defence remained resilient and if not for the last line of defence and some superb tackling from Erdington’s winger/full back Riz the score could have been very different.
Erdington weathered the brief storm from Camp Hill and started on a drive of their own, that took them back into the Camp Hill half and started to apply pressure, Camp Hill struggled to manage this and started to give away a few penalties, this saw Erdington tighten the screw, the decision was made a quick tap by Cleggy saw him take off for the line and whilst the Camp Hill defence managed to get too him, they couldn’t stop his momentum and with help from the rest of the pack he crossed over the white wash, try unconverted.
Erdington now had their tails up and could sense a great victory.
After a passage of play the ball was kicked to Erdington just in their 22 off they went on a run that drew in the Camp Hill defence and they struggled to deal with the attacking support play that saw the ball shipped out to the wing and then a serious of off loads saw Erdington with a 2 on 1 the player drew the man and passed the ball out to Lammy who still had some work to do but managed to get to the line and score under the posts a great well worked try, converted.
Camp Hill were not going to take this lying down and proceeded to take the game to Erdington and and with some good work they managed to punch through the Erdington defence and score just to the right of the post, converted.
The game was heading for the final whistle but Erdington would not give up and their relentless pressure took it’s toll on the Camp Hill and after a number of quick penalties their defence were caught napping and Tom Findon quickly tapped with about 10 meters to the line and walked the ball in untouched, try unconverted.
That more or less concluded the game. The moment of the match though goes to Chris Hume who made a fantastic try saving tackle as the Camp Hill player was about to score in the bottom corner.
The coaches were incredibly impressed with the performance from all of the players who stuck to their game plan and really took the game to a well drilled Camp Hill side. Man of the match award was incredibly difficult as everyone on the park could of easily been awarded the accolade but after much deliberation between the coaching team, Riz and Ryan were joint awarded MOM.