Tenacious Horsham battle hard but lose to Camberley

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.
By Matt Pole
Published 30th Oct 2019, 14:09 BST
Tom Johnson kicked the only points for Horsham. Picture courtesy of Richard OrdidgeTom Johnson kicked the only points for Horsham. Picture courtesy of Richard Ordidge
Tom Johnson kicked the only points for Horsham. Picture courtesy of Richard Ordidge

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.

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Green and Whites head coach Nick Stocker said: “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.

“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.”

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Horsham opened the scoring with a penalty from Tom Johnson 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 Nick Barry forced his way over.

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.

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Neither team was able to string together much continuity until Camberley put together a passage of play shortly before the full time whistle to send Jaid Wiltshire over in the corner to seal a 17-3 win.