Colne V Carnforth

COLNE & NELSON RUFC 1st 26 v CARNFORTH 1ST 5
Colne played host to Carnforth on Saturday knowing it was going to be a tough game. Colne’s build up to the match was not ideal with players not turning up leaving Colne short. After taking some players from a strong second team Colne were able to shuffle things about and put out a strong team. Colne kicked off with the wind behind them and straight from the kick off Carnforth showed they had come to play with some strong running from the forwards. For the first ten minutes both sets of forwards hammered away at each other trying to get the upper hand, with neither side able to get the upper hand Colne decided to see if the backs could find any gaps in the defence. With quick hands from the Howard Wick his center partner Tom Gallagher was able to use his searing pace to race away and score in the corner, Matty Tindall with the conversion. This spurred Colne on and they started to use their backs a lot more. Excellent continuity from Colne’s forwards with Antony Minsell and Dem swapping passes between themselves, managed to give Colne’s backs ball going forward which with the pace they have out wide is is always going to be dangerous and it proved to be with Dean Sykes having a easy run in for a try after superb handling from the backs. Matty Tindall added the extra points. Colne now were playing with confidence and when they got a line out in Carnforth’s twenty two they decided to try a new line out move they had been working on and it worked a treat as Kyle Hargreaves raced away to score only for the ref to blow his whistle and cancel the try. After that disallowed try Carnforth realised that that they could not let Colne’s backs get the ball and they did this by using their more experienced pack and started some to pick and drives. Colne struggled to cope with this and Carnforth once more got a grip of the match only some excellent defence from Colne’s back row of Sunny, Dem and Antony kept their forwards from breaking Colne’s try line. The half time whistle went with Colne fourteen nil up and glad to have the break so as to regroup. With a few well placed words from the coaches the second half got under way with Colne playing into the wind.
It was not going to easy for Colne as Carnforth had the bit between their teeth and were really going at Colne from the off with their big inside center making some barnstorming runs and taking at least two players to bring him down. Carnforth were suffocating all of the ball and the little ball Colne did see was slow and static. On the odd occasion Colne’s backs did get good quick ball they looked devastating and on one such occasion the moved the ball out wide and winger Jamie Gain “ playing his third game in a week” stepped round his man to score in the corner Matty successful with the conversion once more. Colne were now searching for their forth try and a bonus point. But some ill discipline and bad decisions on Colne’s part kept Carnforth in the game. Now the referee had turned against Colne and was penalising them at every break down this allowed Carnforth to make they way up into Colne’s twenty two and after a scrum their standoff powered his way over for a try, conversion missed. This gave Carnforth a boost and they pounded on Colnes‘ try line for the next ten minutes. Excellent tackling from Tom Gallagher and Andrew Grinrod kept Carnforth out. A huge kick from Aaron Denton relieved the pressure. Now Colne were in Carnforth's twenty two they went hunting for the bonus point try. This came when a poor kick from Carnforth fell into the save hands of Connor Kinnane who gracefully set off running dummied the winger and scored under the posts. Conversion attempt by Matty Tindall failed. This was the final act of the match and the game ended 26-5 to Colne.
The Barbie playhouse man of the match was shared between Tom Gallagher and Sunny.
On a sad note Nando's at Bury has recorded a lose in profits these week.