With Harlow ii's pulling out of the league fixture on Friday we were grateful to Westcliff, who had their II's and III's games called off, agreeing to travel to a busy Cottons Park for a friendly. With both clubs putting out strong teams containing a lot of university students it proved to be a very competitive match.

W Baldwin, Dunne, Jones, Trapp, Lidlow, Rogers, Hill, Ashmore, Frost, Fennessy, O'Connor, O'Reilly, Hogan, Hobbrough, Lee. Subs - Lynch, J Baldwin, Carter, Auckloo, Pitkin, Joe Arnone, Whitcombe.

The return of uni boys, Ollie Lee, Mike Hogan and Joe Fennessy revived a back line ravaged by injuries to key players in recent weeks. There were also first starts of the season off the bench for Steff Auckloo at scrum half, Ben Pitkin on the wing and a debut for school full back, Callum Whitcombe, all of whom were very impressive.

Westcliff's power in the scrum helped them to two tries, one of which was converted, to give them a 12 - 0 lead but Campion's impressive play around the pitch was causing Westcliff's heavier pack all sorts of problems. Approaching half time, a break initiated by Mike Hogan, carried on by the forwards and superbly recycled by the backs saw Mike Hogan with ball in hand and a two man overlap 10 meters for the line when he was inexplicitedly hit by a snipers bullet and fell to the ground with no opposition player anywhere near him, butchering a certain and well deserved try. To be fair so very unlike Mike who was causing havoc in opposition ranks with his direct running.

Neil Lynch had seen enough of Westcliff's scrum dominance and dusting off his Christmas party excesses with Baker from the day before replaced Will Baldwin in the second half. Joe Baldwin replaced the concussed George Rogers. Into the back line came Steff Auckloo, Ben Pitkin, Joe 'Basterjoe' Arnone and Callum Whitcombe. Mike Carter was held back in reserve.

Westcliff opened the second half with a converted try to give them a 19-0 lead. When we could have easily folded, Campion to their credit regrouped and playing some superb rugby hit back at Westcliff with three fairly quick tries from Olly Lee, Kev O Reilly and Mike Hogan, all converted, to give Campion a 21-19 lead going into the last quarter. Game on. Mike Carter was now on for Alfie Hill and a great chase and turnover from him on their full back kept the pressure on Westcliff which led to a fairly kick able penalty from 30 meters. Typical of Campion, Olly Lee decided to tap and go and his pace nearly made the line before being being turned over. Great work from the Campion pack, led by Ashmore, Trapp and Lidlow with the bit firmly between their teeth, kept an increasingly frustrated Westcliff pinned back in their own half and eventually they conceded a penalty with a few minutes left of the clock. This time Olly Lee struck the ball between the posts to give Campion a 24 - 19 victory against a very strong Westcliff team, one of the best we have faced this season.

MOTM was a difficult choice and was ultimatley shared between Mike Ashmore, unlucky to miss out on first team selection this week, and lead from the front throughout this game and Olly Lee who caused problems in open play throughout the game. Other contenders included Trapp and Mike Hogan, both impressive in the tackle area and exploiting space with their speed.

Manager, Pat Hallahan, and captain, Tom Ronayne, can be very pleased with the commitment and effort of the squad over the first half of the season. So far this season, around 57 players have turned out for the seconds, many have made first team appearances or are pushing hard for the opportunity and at no stage have we found ourselves scratching around for players. Injuries to Liam McEvoy, Damo Thomas, Will Brown and Matt Buchan rule them out for the rest of the season. Hopefully we can give opportunities to some of the school team as their season draws to a close to keep them active before they head off on tour of South Africa next summer.
At the conclusion of the game we can agree that the future of both Campion and Westcliff is in a good place with both young teams showing good physicality as well as skill and pace. Although some things never change, Campion were still losing until veteran prop Neil Lynch entered the fray.

Have a good Christmas all and I will see you at training on Saturday 3rd January, 10.15, at the school.