Horsham beaten by a strong Camberley side in atrocious conditions

There was to be no repeat of last week’s last minute heroics as Horsham battled hard against a powerful Camberley side in the wind and the rain but to no avail and came away with a 17-3 home defeat remaining fifth in the league. Handling was extremely difficult in the wet conditions and for the first time this season the Green and Whites failed to score a try in the face of a resolute defence.

This was the first occasion in which Horsham have ever played Camberley, who are an ambitious club and likely to be in the end of season promotion shake up.

Horsham Head Coach Nick Stocker said after the game: “Not the best game of rugby to watch given the conditions with handling errors dictating throughout. In the first half, we got on the wrong side of the refs interpretations and gave away too many penalties which granted field position to a very effective forward unit which ultimately bore fruit for Camberley going into the half with a 12-3 lead and the wind advantage to come. Our second half however was much better and although we still did not score, we had much more possession and field position and missed a couple of real try scoring opportunities in the process. Clear areas to focus on in such conditions and we will learn from the experience.

With weather dictating proceedings it would never be a game to see the backs shine. Tom Johnson at 12 was his usual physical self and got some us good front foot ball on occasions. In the forwards, the front row worked tirelessly throughout and matched the opposition throughout whereas our second rows were in a tough battle with two excellent opponents. The pick of our forwards however goes to brothers Rich and Mike Tredgett who once again gave good front-foot ball under close observation of the defence.

A special mention to two players - Rich Tredgett who we called up out of retirement on Saturday morning having had skipper Jamie Redmayne pull out. As usual he was his effective self, particularly in the contact, and also Conor Riley who made his first team debut on the wing. A tough day for such a debut but showing glimpses that he’s up to this level of rugby with a couple of very effective tackles.

Despite the weather however, Mike Watts demonstrated his fighting spirit with speed of thought on quick taps and some effective tackles out wide and for his all-round contributions was awarded our Man of The Match.

Next time out, we face newly promoted Belsize Park who like us have had a positive start to the season and will prove to be tough opponents.”

Horsham opened the scoring with a penalty from Tom Johnson which was awarded at the ruck but had difficulty in building on this as they had problems in securing line out ball due to the dominance of Dom Sammut. The Green and Whites were conceding penalties under pressure and conceded a try from a subsequent driving maul when eventually Nick Barry forced his way over.

Camberley nearly added a second try after a great break by Tom Allen but the final pass went astray. The visitors were camped in the red zone and it was not long before Jordan Smith was yellow carded and following further offences by Horsham a penalty try was awarded on the stroke of half time as they went into the break 12-3 down.

There was little rugby played to entertain the crowd after the break in the atrocious conditions as the two sides battled it out in the middle of the pitch with neither team able to string together much continuity without spilling the ball until Camberley put together a passage of play shortly before the close to send Jaid Wiltshire over in the corner to seal a 17-3 win.

Horsham: Watts; Condon (Riley), Smith F, Johnson, Wilde; Bell J, Linfield; Cass (Barber), Preston, Bell N; Goward, Tredgett R; Osgood (Jenkins), Smith J, Tredgett M