And so another weekend another game of rugby.

Despite being holed up in hospital (get well soon DC) our revered leader was able to orgainise enough to get a full squad out for the 2's this weekend, and surprisingly the 1's didn't pinch anyone - to my knowledge anyway.

With our captain Phil Monaghan taking over the duties from DC we all arrived in time for a lengthy 15 minute warm up, not that you would have wanted more due to the sun shining - it was rather warm running around and so water breaks were aplenty.

Once again we lined up with some new faces and some new combinations. Matty Rouse was pack at 9 with Keogh back at 10. And as we huddled in to kick off we also noticed two previous front row players had stepped into the centres for us - Anthont Dannatt (a former shadow of himself having lost 2.5 stone) and Ramsey (having played there for the first time two weeks ago).

So we kicked off our new winger Lawrence chased after the ball with vigour, he did well to pressure the kick, I didn't do so well to field the kick and promptly knocked on. So with the scrum to Wyvern we all linked up, crouched and engaged. This where it became interesting, Harborne had the upper hand. With Beefy pushing up on his tighthead side and Phil hooking the ball from there 2nd rows feet, he had to due to their scrum half feeding.

It became apparent in the opening exchanges that the Wyvern number 8 was their go to guy and the Wyvern forwards loved to crash it up the fringes. This is where the Harborne D dug deep with Lugg, Ben Adams and Graham doing well to stop them breaking the gain line. When this didn't work for them they tried using their pretty nippy wing and full back to run it, they were not as quick as our wing Checklin and our full back Jack Sears, and so were always held.

With the two crash centres in Dannat and Ramsey taking us further and further up the field Harborne were always on the front foot. Very good support work from Ed at no. 8 always meant we were going forward but a knock on here, a fumbled pass there meant we never crossed the line (apparently this was very disconcerting to the sideline - always nice to have a crowd thank you Pete, Duick, carol, Cal).

In fact the only score of the half came from Wyvern, a chip over the top and an unlucky bounce saw the visiting side cross the whitewash, almost held up by Tristan I think but it was a score. They converted - 0 - 7 to Wyvern. This seemed to wake Harborne, Keogh (first mention but he had been involved so far honest) put up a lovely restart and I even managed to get under it - to knock on - running theme sorry. We won the scrum against the head and Keogh then made a lovely dart up the opposite wing to be smashed by their 8 (ouch). However, support saw the ball recycled and go through a number of hands before Matt Rouse touched down on the line - or at least he thought. Ref thought otherwise and blew for a scrum and promptly the half.

The Harborne huddle at half time pretty much involved a quick - keep doing what you're doing it will come.

From the restart we were all over them like a rash, with the sun in their eyes and with us now running downhill the pressure was being shown. All of sudden the Wyvern side didn't seem so sure and their came fell apart a little. Good pressure from flanks Tristan and Graham saw their kicks not go very far resulting in plenty of lineouts. This was another area where captain Phil was coming to the fore, time and time again we stole their ball. This, combined with Harborne scrum dominance, brought some bickering from with Wyverns own.

It wasn't far into the 2nd half that Harborne got on the score sheet, some lovely hands from the backs putting Checklin in the corner. As it was the corner Keogh was unable to convert but we now had the wind up us and we were away. With Ramsey off due to ankle injury we moved Ed out into the centre and Richard came on at flank, with Tristan to 8. About this time we brought Derek and Adam on for Lugg and Ben.

Play continued and Wyvern were coming back strong. At this point I witnessed something that will go down in history, Keogh made a tackle on their 8 to be proud of. Picture it, a stick thin blond fly half vs the human brick shit house no. 8, and the fly half came off better. He then continued to do this to anyone that ran anywhere near him, he was like a limpet. Unfortunately his tackling improved but his kicking did not and he missed a penalty.

I don't really know what happened next, I think it was a ball steel by Beefy that turned a Wyvern possession into a Harborne possession but Ed did well to run it up the wing. Some quick support from Jack saw Matty Rouse recycle the ball to Keogh, who in turn fed Dannatt, who in turn beat two players to feed Lawrence on the other wing who ran for a try. Smooth. AND Keogh converted, 12-7 to Harborne.

A series of injuries then saw Ben Adams back on, along with Robert Lugg, with both myself (knee) and Ramsey (who had gone off from centre, to come back on at prop, to go back off from a collapsed scrum and twisting ankle). With only 8 minutes left to go Wyvern were putting their backs into it and consistently made ground. To consistently be met with a great Harborne D that would often steal the ball at break down, kick it back down field and once again Wyvern had to run it back.

This happened a few times until finally the ref blew for time. Harborne were elated, Wyvern were gutted, we were all knackered.

A good game by everyone, no one stepped back, everyone fronted up, we were patient and we won. Until next time....