Tough conditions away to Woodrush

So with the Super Saturday Six Nations upon us the inevitable shortages in players came about. With that I turned up to watch Harborne at Woodrush away and was greeted with instant get your kit on, we only have 12. Apologising for being injured I declined and was faced with an eager ref who asked me to run line etc.. etc...

Now, bear in mind that the views expressed in this report do not necessarily match those of the club, I have to comment on the numbers. So we had 12, they had 16. When they ran out they gave us one of their wingers, Yann, and so we were now 13 vs 15. To me, and seeing as it was only a friendly, surely you would given another player over to make it a fair game of 14 vs 14. To make it harsher another of their players arrived after kick off and remained as a sub for them. Not sportsmanlike in my book.

Having said that, at 13 vs 15, we kicked off and the game ensued. The initial phases involved alot of kicking back and eventually ending in a lineout to Woodrush on the Harborne 10. Some very good D by Harborne ended with stealing the ball in contact and kicking back downfield, deftly chased by Choccy whose pressure forged a knock by Woodrush.

At the resulting scrum Woodrush had an early engage and a Harborne attack ensued. Unfortunately a turnover at the breakdown allowed Woodrush to run it back, using their overlap they ran in a try.

Harborne got stuck back in and stole one of many of Woodrush's lineouts. This was the only area where Harborne outshone as they were easily moved backwards in most scrums, resulting in try number 2 as Woodrush stole the ball at scrum and the number 8 simply had to touch down when they reached the line.

You would have thoughts Harborne heads would have started to drop by this point, beaten at scrum time and always beaten on numbers. I am very proud to say this was not the case.

Woodrush were made to work for every yard, none more so then the next try where the Harborne try line was constantly pummelled by Woodrush. Time and time agin they were turned away, with the Harborne players (and one Woodrush winger) placing bodies on the line to thwart them. It worked, a penalty for holding on allowed Harborne to clear their lines.

Unfortunately an overthrown lineout gave Woodrush the chance to attack and with Harborne on the back foot they once again used their overlap to score.

You could see this was going to be the order of the day, use the overlap every time. However, so too did Harborne and on a number of occasions there were try saving tackles, and even a tap tackle, by Tom, Wrightly, Lackie and Choccy.

However, shortly after a scrum on the Harborne 5m line once again giving the Woodrush 8 the chance to go over in the corner due to the lack of blinside flanker and winger.

Once again I then witnessed an awesomne disply of defense as Harborne kept Woodrush at bay, once again resulting in a turnover by Macca or Ben (not sure as they both seemed to be everywhere) and we cleared our lines.

Following a knock on by Woodrush they pushed back the Harborne scrum, a number of the Harborne pack know sporting bloody injuries due to commitment around the park, and Woodrush once again used the overlap to score.

The last score of the half again went to Woodrush. I don't remember wholly how it happened but there was a lot of scamble D from harborne before their rather large no. 5 took a few players over the line to score.

We ended the half with a good period of pressure on the Woodrush try line by Harborne.

We restarted the 2nd half, still 13 men vs 15, and Woodrush were starting to get greedy. With a penalty to Harborne for holding on Choccy knocked downfield, it didn't make touch but it did make their full back knocking on. A very quick scrum ensued and Macca hit it up, followed by Gibbo, followed by Roberto, then Saunders, time and time again Harborne inched closer and closer to Woodrush line. Woodrush gave away a penalty and a quick tap penalty by Wrighty fed Choccy who charged up, eventually taken on by LacK who went through/took over four as he made the line. Unsurprisingly Gibbios drop conversion didn't make it.

It appeared Woodrush were tiring and their next few tries came from again their bug no. 5 crashing over, there was then one that was held up over the line - wily Tom getting underneath - but they only pushed the scrum over to score anyway. There was then a mis-tackle, a knock on and another try via a scrum.

With Ben now playing everywhere, minus head guard, he was found guilty of flattening the ref. To be fair he was going for the player and he got in way but still managed to get a ticking off anyway.

70 minutes in Mick then arrived, better late than never and on he went for the last 10. Now we were 14 vs 15. This evened things up for the last 10 or so and Harborne were placing good pressure up in the Woodrush 22. Unfortunately a Woodrush boot got into the ruck, kicking the ball out, a hack downfield and overlap meant Woodrush had the final score.

This ended the game at 58 - 5.

Well stuck at it Harborne, nice picture at the end I think epitomises the spirit of the club - still smiling after all of the above, arm in arm as a club should be, not afraid to get dirty and put bodies on the line. Be proud.