A brilliant ten as Cambridge
CAMBRIDGE director of rugby Richie Williams confessed to being pretty much lost for words as his side made it ten wins in a row since their home defeat to Rams on January 28 to clinch the National One title.
In that time, the Blood & Sand have dropped just two points and, while they’ve taken the crown by virtue of three defeats and a draw – to Rams’ four defeats – beating Moseley by a margin enabling them to top 1,000 points scored for the season makes the narrow margins at the top of the table much less of an issue.
In a remarkable title race – settled in the end by a postponed fixture rather than a brilliant bullish win at Plymouth last week, Williams afforded a wry smile. He said: “This was the first time we’d hit top spot all season. What a time to do it!
“That says it all, doesn’t it? The mental resolve of the playing group, the capacity they’ve shown to keep fighting every week, is as much credit to forwards coach Neil Harris and defence coach Anthony Allen, who’ve come in this season and driven the standards.
PICTURES: Chris Fell
Tarrant, Asiedu, Hema, Llloyd, Green, James, Duffin; Brownhill, Brownlie, Walker, Frost, Baxter, Bretag-Norris, Adams, Maka
Priestley, Morley, Collins, Bryan, Hoppe
Harper, Bulumakau, Creed, Allsopp, Pointon, Lewis, Painter; Foreman, McNulty, Langley, Barnes, Butler, Le Roux, Morris, Benjamin, Stedman
Roach, Priest, Ayling, English, Zindi
“We spoke a lot this week around Moseley and our last-minute defeat there early on in the season – that was the catalyst for today’s performance.
“That win at Albion last week was a great achievement, but to come back here and do what we did this week, at home in front of such a big crowd, five points to win the league, a lot of the motivation was because they beat us last time out at their place. We fed off that this week.
“What an achievement for everybody involved at the club.
“There’s people here who’ve been involved a lot longer than we have – but we’re so happy and we’ll enjoy the next couple of days.”
The first 30 minutes were torture for the expectant crowd – Mose worked hard to keep the red tide at bay, and even went ahead through former Cambridge fly-half Dan Lewis, who landed