Match Report by Peter Samuel

On a perfect day for rugby any thoughts of running in a cricket score against Division 5 Camelot were quickly squashed as the visitors put two tries on Fullers in the opening five minutes, out-gassing the backs when they penetrated the first line of defence. Fullers were well and truly caught with their pants down; I don’t think Hemel will be Div 5 for long. 0-14

Fullers’ heads didn’t dip though, and they soon produced a try in reply with Anderson going over following some fancy footwork and good interchange between the backs. 7-14. The comeback appeared short-lived, however, when Hemel came straight back with another display of raw speed, 7-21. The Fullers pack trundled up the pitch and ground out another hard fought try with Higgs going over, 14-21, but the tit-for-tat scoring nature of the game continued, and again Hemel replied with a well worked try, slicing open the Fullers defence through the middle to make it 14 -26 at half time

Captain Adams rallied the troops during the break and the team came out of the blocks determined to put things right and cut out the errors. Some rampaging runs from the pack with great interplay saw Hazzer go over within 5 minutes, and the conversion from out wide was brilliantly slotted by Adams to bring up a 21-26 scoreline.

Fullers had to work hard for their rewards as Hemel were up to the task and showed no signs of running out of steam. Crunching tackles from both teams cut any set plays dead, and both teams cancelled each other out for a while until Monty burst through to score a well worked try to level the scores 26-26. When Higgs went over shortly after, Fullers found themselves in the lead for the first time in the game, 33-26.

Once again, Hemel dug deep to show they were not quite done yet. After a long period of sustained pressure and some excellent defence from Fullers, the visitors went over in the last minute. 33-31, with the conversion to be the last play of the day. Unfortunately for Camelot, they hit the upright and the whistle saw Fullerians emerge with the win, although a draw might have been a fairer result for two well matched teams.

Team
Harry Mc, Hazzer, Ramone, Robbie, Tristan, Ethan, Higgs, Pepper, Dan, Ben W, Monty, Luke, Simeon, Ross (capt), Callum M, Tom W, Lewis, Nathan, Joe B, Brandon.

SCORERS
Anderson, Higgins (2), Samuel, Rennoldson
Conversions Adams (4 from 5)

MOTMs Rennoldson, Williamson

DOTD Hazzer