Calne captain, Mike Charlwood, stood firm on his decision to start the very young and inexperienced team, that consisted of 3 new recruits, selected due to their commitment to the mid week training sessions. Under great pressure he resisted starting a number of larger more experienced players who had not been attending training or supporting the club to away games and who had only made their availability known after training. Instead Mike decided to bring the 'big guns' on a half time.

The young first half team tried very hard, and just as importantly started to bond, but were dominated by CAT's aggressive rucking and subsequently starved of ball. CAT looked very well drilled and dominated possession and territory. A rare phase of Calne position was interrupted when a loose pass was pounced up on and punished by an unconverted try. CAT controlled the early phases and it was clear to see that the team had trained together regularly as they demonstrated a number of well worked moves from set pieces and open play.

A second try followed, converted this time, when CAT's feisty forwards popped off of a quick ruck ball. Calne were able to relive the pressure as, club stalwarts, Pete McGarry and Matt Arnold started to win ball for fly half James Gladding to drill deep into CAT territory. At about this time a disturbing CAT tactic became apparent. Whenever, and without exception, Calne strung a few phases of play together or started to make inroads into the CAT pack a feigned injury would interrupt any momentum. The footballer like injuries were companied by a non-stop barrage of winging to the referee, again very footballer like and also timed to coincide with any constructive play from Calne. Ultimately though, another try was soon won when a quick tap penalty was taken and strong running ensured a score in the corner. Half time 0-17.

Mike rang the changes in the second half, bring Daron Thomas on who was his most destructive yet. He terrorised the CAT half backs and bounced a number of players on his powerful runs. The ground he made soon saw CAT conceded a penalty for killing the ball which took Calne off the mark through the very reliable boot of Andy Donegan.

Calne kept their cool as the CAT forwards targeted new hooker Mike Palfrey, as a new tactic to kill Calne's now increasing momentum. When ever a ruck or maul cleared a CAT forward was enviably harassing Palfrey who showed great maturity and resisted retaliation. Calne later had a taste of their own medicine with a held up scoring attempt and were very unlucky moments later to have a try incorrectly disallowed. Unphased CAT maintained there composure and soon mounted a late second half come back with a sweetly taken long range drop goal to secure the honours with a 3 points to 20 win.

The players post match reaction was fairly positive as the tied second half gave everyone a little more confidence as to their true potential. And the progress being made by new recruits Mike Burden, John Hope-Smith and Mike Robinson will hopefully bode well for the future.

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