Manbags at Dawn !!

t was a feisty affair at times when Harrow and Tabbard visited Chaulden Lane for a tri-fixture that featured some top quality, competitive rugby - capped off by 6 wins out of 6 for the two Camelot sides.

First up for Tom's Tigers was Harrow, a strong side that enjoyed a lot of possession, but came up against a rugged Camelot defence that refused to allow the visitors over the line, and when they did get the ball out, some excellent passing moves always looked threatening. The inevitable lead came when Ben popped a pass out Seb who ran through to score. 1-0. Too often Harrow found their moves being drawn out wide where they were often tackled out of play; from one of the resulting free passes Caolan received the ball and proceeded to run clean through half the length of the field to double the lead. 2-0. Harrow, deservedly, pulled one back with the last play off the half, and it looked at that point as thought they may play their way back into the game.
In the centre of field Ollie was making some powerful runs with Joseph and Eddie along side to join the maul when it looked like Ollie would be stopped. Ben was also using his strength and went on a storming run which ended with almost the entire Harrow team on top of him, somehow Freddie managed to pick the ball out of the melee and score. 3-1. Moments later it was Freddie's turn to lay off the pass with a delightful little pop out to Ollie who had no problem completing the scoring. The 4-1 scoreline makes it sound a much easier win than it was, two evenly matched sides saw Camelot come out on top as a result of making the better passes at crucial, and some tough pushing when pinned back on their own defensive line.
FT: Camelot 4-1 Harrow Seb, Freddie, Ollie, Caloan

The next match against Tabbard was fairly mild compared to the bruising encounter with Harrow. Seb opened the scoring with one of his trademark runs and the Tabbard defence were constantly bamboozled by the movement of Freddie and Thomas - the dummies, the switches and the short passes...and of course the scissor move that fooled everyone allowing Thomas a clear run through to make it 2-0. Before the interval it was Thomas again who put the result beyond doubt with another mazy run, leaving the defenders with no chance of preventing another score. 3-0. The second-half started much like the first with Seb weaving his way through to score and then a lapse of concentration in defence enable Tabbard to get on the scoresheet, 4-1. The final try of the match came from another Freddie and Thomas double act that led to a pass out to Caolan who made no mistake in finding the space to finish the match.
FT: Camelot 5-1 Tabbard Seb 2, Thomas 2, Caolan

After Tabbard and Harrow had played a match there was time for just one more game, with Tom's Tigers facing a re-match against Harrow, knowing that the previous match had been much closer than the scoreline suggested. Everyone knew it was going to be tough, but nobody expected it to be quite as bruising as it turned out! Neither side was holding back in the tackle with some crunching challenges and rucks and mauls regularly seeming to contain more that the Hertfordshire ruling of just two people, but it was fantastic to watch.
Camelot broke the deadlock when Freddie went on a run, passed the ball out to Seb who made no mistake in scoring under the posts. 1-0. It looked as though Harrow were going to equalise until the player dropped the ball just as he was about to place it, and Camelot managed to play their way out of danger, before finding Freddie with a pass that saw him almost literally run past the entire Harrow team to score - Having absorbed all the pressure, it was now 2-0. In the second-half the competitiveness increased even further, with Camelot going down to 7 players and having to work even harder to defend the lead. At one point the referee stopped the game to warn everyone against any loose kicking in the rucks, but rather than calm everyone down it seemed to add to the competitiveness. The result was put beyond doubt when Thomas broke through to make it 3-0 and then Camelot even went down to just six players (v Harrow's 8) for a short period...The match finished with a couple of players down on the ground, battered and bruised from one of the most competitive games of the season.
FT: Camelot 3-0 Harrow Seb, Freddie, Thomas

Man of the match went to Freddie for his all round performance - tough in the tackle, scoring tries and setting up others with his well timed passing.

Good match conditions this morning and no dog poo on the pitches - rugby doesn't get much better than this! Out of respect for the French this weekend our Les and Simon managed team will be called "Les Simons Diamonds!

Match 1 was against Tabard with Sam stepping up as Captain. After a cagey start James showed a lot of strength and determination to score - 1-0 to the LSD's! Despite good mauling from Byron and great distribution from Daisy, Tabard equalised - 1-1. Just before half time however, James restored our lead. Two well matched teams. The second half started with a dummy switch play from Edward to give us a cushion - 3-1. Tabard were not going to give up and looked like scoring until Harrison made a try saving tackle. Sam was mauling like a gooden and with another try saving tackle from Harrison the match ended 3-1 to LSD (James 2, Edward 1).

Match 2 was against Harrow. This was a tougher challenge with Harrow piling on the pressure. Some last gasp tackling from James kept them at bay. The same player then scored for LSD - 1-0. More sustained pressure from Harrow however saw them score 3 times to finish the first half 3-1 up. Time for Les and Simon to fire the lads up! The half time talk certainly worked with Edward scoring a great try after a double dummy switch move. This was closely followed by another fantastic run and try from Edward to level the scores at 3-3. With the clock running down James showed a great turn of pace to win it for LSD's 4-3 - a great turnaround for us. (James 2, Edward 2).

The final games saw us against Tabard. After a scrappy opening Sam almost scored with a typical determined and strong run. James was there to pick up the pieces - 1-0 to LSD. Shortly after Edward scored to make it 2-0 at half time. The second half started with another great drive by Sam (no one gets the ball from Sam!) and the usual determination from Daisy which allowed Edward to make it 3-0 and effectively put an end to the game, or so we thought! Tabard came back to score but after another powerful run and try from James the match finished 4-1. (James 2, Edward 2) A great effort from the lads to win all three matches against decent opposition.
Man of the match went to Harrison, excellent tackle and improving all the time, well done.