We had two games today: the first against the hosts, Ivel Barbarians, and the second against visitors Swanage & Wareham.

We took a very large squad, which comprised 23 players. This made selection extremely difficult as the intention was to give all an equal share of the games. It was also the first outing for our new 'away' kit, kindly sponsored by the Royal Air Force.

The first game against Ivel was hard fought from the start, with some good passages of play from both sides. Gradually Ivel forged ahead, eventually winning 32–0 — although this did not bare a true reflection of the part Cary played in the game.

Cary are now starting to off-load the ball after drawing their opposition along with some good hard hitting runs from many players. However, they were beaten back by a good display of tackling and rucking.

The second half saw all but one of the team changed. Despite fresh legs, Ivel were in their stride and proved too much for Cary. First time tackling, rucking and mauling are areas in which we need to improve before our next game.

The second game was more even, although the final score was 21–0 to Swanage & Wareham. Again, there were spells in both halves where slick passing and intelligent off-loads made for exciting play.

At one stage, Gareth Cadwalader emerged out of a large maul with the ball to make a telling run which almost ended in a try. An equally determined run covering most of the park nearly proved successful for Dan Venn. However the opposition stuck to their game, eventually breaking down the Cary defence three times during an exciting and hard fought match.

Despite two losses, there were many encouraging aspects to the games. Hopefully we can get the same numbers to training as we do to the matches, so we can work on the rest in the coming weeks

 
 
by Paul Lester-Hinchliffe