Camden Rams tamed the Oaks Tigers on Saturday night to maintain their unbeaten start to the Group Six Rugby League season, reports MIKE SHEAN.
The Rams earned a 30-18 win over The Oaks in front of a vocal home crowd at Dudley Chesham Oval, with the Tigers celebrating past players on Old Boys night.
It looked like Old Boys night would have been a really big celebration when the home side raced to an 18-0 lead but it was not to be.
Mark Brasington opened the scoring for the Tigers seven minutes in after a nice movement down their right hand side.
James Kovac crossed just after the 20 minute mark to double the lead for the Tigers, before hooker Chris Bailey scored almost immediately after to give The Oaks an 18-0 lead and what looked like a stranglehold on the match.
But seven minutes later former NRL centre Dean Collis opened Camden’s account and the momentum slowly turned in favour of the visitors as the halftime break approached.
With the halftime siren about to be sounded, James O’Neill scored for Camden, to reduce the Tigers margin to 8 points, as the locals led 18-10 at the interval.
Michael Applebee scored five minutes after the resumption of play, and Josh Goulton ensured Camden took the lead minutes later through his first try of the night.
Goulton doubled his try scoring tally on 55 minutes, however the Rams only led by 6 points, and with over 25 minutes remaining, the local supporters felt their team was still in the contest.
But the visitors had other ideas and when the Camden forwards took control of the match, making easy metres upfield in most sets, it produced errors from the Tigers and the writing was on the wall.
Applebee scored his second try with 17 minutes left, and although the score showed Camden leading 30-18, Camden had taken control of the match, and were never troubled in the remainder of the match.
The Oaks had several opportunities late in the second half to score points, but poor options in attack and handling errors saw them turn over possession, ensuring they couldn’t mount any sort of comeback.
Camden captain/coach Scott Borg spoke after the game, and admitted his side needed to start their matches better, after being guilty of a similar start last week against Mittagong.
Borg praised his young side, with several key players leaving the club last year, forcing wholesale changes through the Rams’ ranks.
Borg said youngsters Jayden Sienkiewicz, Ben Powers and Ben Stevens were among the better players for the Rams in their win.
