Since Saturday’s trip to Cheam, I have been trying to get to the nub of my feelings about our game against Old Glyn.

Firstly, I think this game needs to be viewed with some context.

Based on our experience so far, Glyn are set fair for promotion from Counties 4. We still have a couple of teams to play but if the games we have had this season are fair indicators, it should be no surprise that Glyn and Haslemere are starting to separate from the pack.

Southwark round out the top 3 and the oppo for those three teams were all on 14 points after round six – including Quins Ams. Saturday was therefore a chance for us, Cranleigh or Old Freemen’s to look to hang onto the leaders and pull away. If we could just get a win.

As a microcosm for the league, this weekend was therefore perfect. Southwark were well beaten by Cranleigh, we took a hammering at Glyn and Freemen’s were unable to raise a team against Haslemere.

Which brings me back to that question of how do I feel.

Clearly, nobody wants to have 50 points put past them and Saturday was certainly a chastening experience for those of us who took the field.

But I think the answer is that I feel proud.

Firstly, proud that we got a team out. Povey deserves constant congratulations for his hard work behind the scenes but I’ll add my thanks to everyone for their effort this week.

Proud of Max and Caleb for stepping up in the absence of our usual on-pitch leaders. Both are always big voices within the group but it was great to see them take on more formal responsibility with no discernible impact on their games.

But mostly I’m proud of everyone who played on Saturday.

The 18-man squad unfortunately suffered a couple of late dropouts. The resulting re-shuffle meant we ended up with flankers on both wings (one of them clearly ill), a wing at 13 and a hooker at 6. Throw in a couple of props who were debating who was less likely to last a half plus a 9 who managed to pull his thigh in the warmup and it was far from our strongest XV.

Yet everyone of the 16 gave everything he had. There was unity throughout the team and we didn’t give up. Even when we had a chance for an easy penalty (and thus avoid being nilled), instead we went for the corner. The eventual try we scored was far from a thing of beauty but was no less than we deserved.

I keep bleating on about team spirit and this game shows it comes in many guises.