Camelot In SEVENTH Heaven after cup victory

With no matches played in February, March kicked-in with one of the biggest games on the fixture list. Another encounter with OA’s, the benchmark of rugby in Hertfordshire, and still the only team to have toppled this group of players in a competitive match since they were Under 13’s (a friendly v Saracens with a limited squad being the only other defeat in that time).

However, the truth is that ever since the dramatic last minute try that sealed a famous County Cup Final win as Under 14’s, OA’s have recorded three successive victories, looking fairly convincing on each occasion. As exciting and as memorable as the cup win in 2018 was, Camelot will always be going into these games as underdogs…but write them off at your peril!

After heavy rain and storms over previous weeks the playing conditions were perfect underfoot. There was a cold wind in the air, blowing in Camelot’s favour during the first-half which they took full advantage of with a scintillating display – After Storm Ciara, Dennis and Jorge it was the blue and white dynamite that simply blew the opposition away in the first thirty-five minutes of this cup quarter-final.

After an uneventful opening few minutes OA’s kicked a penalty to the edge of the Camelot twenty-two. The line-out didn’t look threatening, but from out of nowhere they broke the line and scored with relative ease. The conversion drifted just wide. Early in the game, the visitors leading 5-0, presumably the missed conversion would not matter?

After all the hype and all the build=up to the match, how would the boys react to falling behind so early? This was no time for heads to drop. There was no time for heads to drop. From the kick-off, a deep boot into OA’s twenty-two, an error was forced from the follow-up. A Camelot scrum perfectly executed, Caolan feeds the ball out to Freddie who finds Dan on the overlap with a perfect run to power over the line under the posts. The conversion goes over the posts and Camelot lead 7-5.

Already the game had the making of a classic. Two exceptional sides battling out, aware of each other’s strengths and determined to prevent their opposite numbers from getting on top of their game. With the wind behind their backs, it was Camelot who controlled the possession and built the most threatening attacks.

After a prolonged period of possession deep in the OA’s half the defence started to give away a series of penalties. Using the tap and go to keep the pressure on and not enabling the defence to settle it was Tommy who eventually used his strength and power to drive over the line to increase the lead, with Dan adding the additional two points from the conversion. 14-5.

Camelot continued to dominate the attacking play, maintaining possession at crucial moments and making the right decisions to limit the threat from the OAs backs. Such was the domination that you would be forgiven for forgetting that they were up against the best team in the county, in a cup quarter-final. Even more so when Caolan ran a perfect line to breakthrough and score Camelot’s third try of the half. Once again under the posts, once again Dan converted. 21-5 at the interval.

On paper the score looked convincing, but the visitors now had the wind at their back which would give them more options with their attacking play and exit strategy in defence. This game was far from over.

As expected, OAs played more of a kicking game in the second period, looking for territory and applying pressure onto the Camelot defence. However, what they did not allow for was James Norman in faultless form at the back of the line, catching everything and turning defence into attack.

After receiving the ball in his own twenty-two Norman was off once again, evading tackles as he broke over the halfway line. Memories of the match-winning try against Harpenden in the league game flooding back as he entered the twenty-two, he couldn’t go all the way again, could he? We will never know the answer to that, instead he very wisely used the support of Dan to pop the ball past the last defender and give Dan a relatively easy run-in for his second of the match. Once again Dan converted to make it 28-5. Unbelievable.

Unbelievable, but the game was far from over.

Straight from the kick-off the visitors pounce, win the ball and break through to score. 28-10. Converted, 28-12.

The opposition were clearly lifted by the score and started to build on that confidence. Another score followed when Camelot lost possession after what looked to be a good move from their own scrum. Once again, the conversion went over and we were back to 28-19.

All great games tend to have their moments of high controversy, and this was no exception. With OA’s clearly pumped from their two scores they were once again on the attack, kicking the ball into the Camelot try zone setting up the chase. The OA’s player got to the ball first, but clearly looked to have knocked-on as the ball was bounced to the ground in a style more akin to Lebron James than Johnny May. On the second bounce it looked as though the OA’s player got to the grounding first…but surely the knock-on would be given?

The referee was uncertain and looked to favour giving the try, however picking up on the complete surprise of everyone else watching he turned to the advice of his linesman who gave no reason for the referee to change his decision. Try given. 28-24. Crucially the conversion was missed.

OA’s were clearly on the front foot now and sniffed blood, the great comeback was on. For Camelot it was a challenging time. As well as dealing with an increasingly confident opposition, they also had to fight their own feelings of injustice and maintain cool heads if they were going to have any chance of seeing out the win.

With a county cup semi-final place at stake, the boys in blue and white picked this moment to put in one of their finest, most mature, defensive five-minute spells of the season. Strong rucking and counter-rucking, quick line on the defence and a realisation that one small error could turn the tie on its head and end the cup dream in a flash. Bring on the Forwards. A multi-phase spell of taking the ball into contact, forming the ruck and repeating. Running down the clock with every solid collision. Smash, bang, hit; smash bang hit. Again, and again. The clock ticks into the red and Camelot win a penalty. A quick check with the ref, Dan does a quick tap, and then hoofs the ball into touch to secure a historic victory.

A performance of the highest quality against the strongest of opposition. Days like these do not come around very often and the fact that they pulled off such a deserved victory is just another example of the simply mind-blowing progress these boys have made over the past seven years. Now they face a completely new challenge. Having knocked out the favourites, they move into the semi-finals of the competition no longer the underdogs in any matches – To win the cup, they are going to have to play out the role of favourites, a completely different ball game. No room for complacency, but a proud day for all concerned.

FT: Camelot 28-24 OA’s
Tries: Dan 2, Tommy, Caolan
Cons: Dan 4