Shamrocks shank Camden 1st and 2nds

1st: Shamrocks 20 def Camden 10

2nd: Shamrocks 34 def Camden 14

3rd: Camden 31 def Shamrocks 15

By Riichard Jeans and Chris Ferry

Round Six of the Illawarra’s rugby competition saw Camden travel to Shamrocks’ Ocean Park last Saturday.

With all grades from both sides looking fairly solid at the start of the season, Camden third’s XV dealt the Shamrock’s their only blow.

Thirds started with a flourish to take a 26-0 half time lead. Thirds scored tries regularly through both backs and forwards. Faleu Falu scored the first try but all tries from that point on were through numbers 10 out. Centre Matt Tagg score two tries, the first from a blistering angled run. Winger Jarrod Kelly showed his pace to score and the final try went to fullback Mark Strong after a concise back line move. Shamrocks managed to score three against the run of play tries, which was the Ram’s only low light. Dan Campbell, Josh Jensen and Christian Paige were Camden’s best.

The second grade fixture was surprising not only due to the score yet Camden’s previously impenetrable goal line, or became a case of lack thereof.

Without conceding a try all season the Shamrocks’ ran rampant on the Rams’ goal defence scoring a handful of times.

Within the first 10 minutes a penalty in Camden’s 22 saw a soft hole for the Shamrocks’ inside centre to dive over who later repeated his efforts grabbing a double for the day.

It was all Wollongong from the whistle; questions asked of Camden’s defence received no answer.

Standouts for the Rams were fullback Andrew Brown who played well above his size making several try saving tackles throughout the day. Forwards Clint Mclelland and Justin Le Good were also strong.

The Rams only consolation were late tries to winger Wade Chandler from a Dan Grimson grubber kick and a typical breakaway try from flanker James Gatt.

Camden’s first XV has slumped to its third straight loss as a more dominant backline and set piece destroyed Camden’s hopes of securing a vital away win.

It was the Shamrocks who laid the first blow yet Camden struck back through some quick passing from flyhalf Alex Ban to hit a strong running prop Ryan Martin who crashed over.

With a try to Tyler Aitken it was looking Camden’s way at 10-5 yet Shamrock’s ability to take advantage of a slow moving defence line saw two run away tries.

The second half saw a slow start from both teams, drop ball and turnovers saw a stale mate throughout the half yet Camden were their own worst enemy.

Continuous stolen ball at the breakdown saw the Shamrocks get a roll on and score the final try against the Rams ending the score at 20-10.
Tyler Aitken was a standout at fullback and loose forwards Danny Ballantyne and Gavin Holder worked tirelessly.

Co-Coach Andrew Suffel put the loss down to preparation.

“There’s no point trying to win a game of football when your just going through the motions, the boys tried hard but our preparation has to improve”.

Camden play host to University next week, which is also Back to Camden day, where past players are encouraged to come down for a beer, a laugh and some entertaining rugby where 1st and 2nd grade will hope to turn around this week’s results.