Youth Rugby - U13 Fixtures & Reports

Camberley 1st XV  15 – 19  Cobham 1st XV

Surrey League One

30 March 2008

Tries:  Galuccio (3)

Conversions: MccGwire (2)

Cobham edge it against a much improved Camberley side.

A dream start for Cobham when in the first minute they won an early scrum and with some slick passing set Matias Galuccio free, as per usual he outpaced the defence and touched down for an unconverted try.  This was a very strong Camberley side with powerful forwards who got the better of the Cobham pack for most of the first half.  Cobham knew they were in a game when after four minutes following some strong forward pressure the big Camberley No 8 crashed over the line to level the scores. 

Camberley continued to put the pressure on and had the advantage in terms of territory and possession. After 13 minutes and struggling within their own half Cobham again managed to work the ball to Matias who then in the immortal words of David Coleman “opened his legs and showed his class” to touch down under the posts for the second time.  Tom MccGuire converted and Cobham had a 12-5 breathing space.  Camberley came back strongly and after 18 minutes with a huge overlap they scored again and it was “game on “ at 12-10 – fortunately for Cobham the simple conversion was missed, something Camberley would regret bitterly at the end. 

Cobham kept getting penalised for some uncharistaristic backchat to the referee and finally paid the price when from what had become a strong field position the powerful Camberley forwards drove over to give them the lead at 15-12. Simple conversion was again missed.  

Halftime couldn’t have come quickly enough for Cobham who were coming off second best in most of the forward encounters.  The second half was a dour defensive one for Cobham, but they upped their game and after 11 minutes that man Galuccio was worked clear again, outpaced the defenders and touched down for his third try and to crucially give Cobham the lead against the run of play. Tom MccGuire converted to make it 19-15 to Cobham.  It was now some dogged defensive work for the rest of the 32 minute half and all credit to Cobham who fought magnificantly and showed great determination in not letting Camberley cross their line.  Overall not the best day in the office for Cobham, but they certainly battled and refused to give way under the severest pressure – well done.

In the post match interviews Robert Hickman said:

" Although we faced an almost impregnable Camberley pack, our defence was outstanding with complete commitment from all the Cobham players. We looked most dangerous when we got the ball out wide. It was an extremely hard fought match with the whole team playing their part, well played"

And prop forward Jake Kent added “We didn’t really pull our weight in the first half, regrouped after half time and our defence was much tighter in the second half”.