Harborne take the title with time to spare

Hello all, a bit late, apologies - its amazing how much you do in a week off - its more planned than if I was in work!

Anyway a big build up to last weekends game, Top of the Table vs Second, win the game win the league - the same situation for the 2's - and all with a few weeks to spare.

Fortunately the 1's opposition turned up, more than can be said for the 2's!, but they did arrive a tad early and as such had to wait for the Uni Team to open the changing rooms an hour prior to kick off. Meaning they only had 45mins to warm up and not 90mins (as they kept reminding us).

Anyway, back to the fixture and the sidelines were packed and the game kicked off. It was exciting from the off with some hard lines being run, especially by Joe Wilson who waltzed through several Cannock players to touch down. With celebrations on going the ref blew up for a foot in touch, the excellent break from Clarke which created the try and just nicked the white line before offloading.

However, with the taste of the line in the air Harborne attacked with renewed vigour and it was not long before a simple move of 'hands' created the space for Tom Arnold to go over. With M Wright converting.

Cannock were not to be un-done though and came back, and back again, with Rhys, Ciaran and Ben pushing them back each time at the fringes. With some strong D in the backline with Will and Ben in the centres Cannock struggled to break through. An unlikely but excellent turnover midfield by none other Nathan saw Joe once again make a dash. Tom A then took up drawing in the defence to offload in good time for M Wright to score. he was then coached through the kick by his brother Ben and converted.

Cannock came back and came back strong. Some solid and rushed D held them firm, this time Ciaran turned them over and Harborne managed to clear their lines. In the ensuing kick chase their was deemed a deliberate knock on. In the process of lineouts and back and for there was the first scrum. Harborne struggled, doing their best to go 'sideways' it took all the skill of captain Mills to ensure the backs still had good clean ball.

With a good pick up by Mills he allowed a strong running Ben Wright to score, this was again converted. Do not be fooled thus far by the score line, Cannock came back time and time again and had come close several times. They gradually worked their way up to the Harborne 5m line and a quick tap penalty saw their 9 scramble over for their first score.

But whatever Cannock could do Harborne could do better. From the restart Will Arnold claimed the high ball, ably supported the ball was recycled quickly by Hodgy and Tom A ghosted through for Ben W to score his brace.

This brought about two things, half time and the substitution of Tom A who had gone over on his ankle from the previous score. With all change in pack and backs the second half kicked off.

From the off Harborne went back, with an invigorated pack Rhys chipped over and collected, the offload to Joe saw him draw defenders as they now realised to close him down so he deftly kicked through. Sharpie, new on the pitch chased and chased to beat the Cannock D to touch down - score - or so we thought. Somewhere along the line Harborne had been penalised and Cannock cleared the lines.

This became the nature of the 2nd half, as Harborne imploded and conceded several penalties for Cannock to first of all kick back 3 points and later on as Rhys was binned for scrum infringements and Ben was binned for a high tackle, the ref saw fit to award a penalty try.

As Harborne gradually made their way back into the game we though for certain Beefy was in at one point only for an earlier penalty, as Ben had stormed his way up midfield with a great handoff, was pinged for holding on.

As Cannock failed to clear their lines Harborne ran it back and Cannock had their own bin after a high tackle. Several more changes were made as the sidelines, touch judge and ref all conferred with reference to subs, rolling subs, permitted changes, how many left, how many had we had, following the earlier binning of two of the Harborne front row. Nathan 'Sideways' Fage went back on for Emir and Lawrence rejoined in place of Ciaran.

With all this going on, plus my hands being suitably frozen by this point, I can tell you the last 20 mins was a rather dull affair. Cannock pulled a drop goal to secure the losing bonus point, crucial as they battle out 2nd place with Clee Hill, the Wrighty brothers again proved their worth being the heart of most attacks and defence, Aidan was as sparky as he usually is, Sharpie was a tackle monster and with those we saw our way to the end of the game.

So with both 1's and 2's having secured top spot in their respective leagues we all retired to the bar to discuss tactics over an orange juice and - as a point definitely worth mentioning - a lovely curry provided by Carol, Helen, Susan, Debbie, Charlie, Sigs and all the rest.