This season Colne & Nelson have been on fire, showing their attacking prowess on many occasions. They travelled to Clitheroe having had a bad start to the main part of the season, although they have played some of the league's stronger sides in their opening games and have sustained a number of injuries to key players. From the home side's perspective, Clitheroe were looking ahead to this game, wanting to build on some of the good parts of recent wins against Oxton and Burnley and last week's loss at Ormskirk where they attacked with a certain "elan".

The home team started well in retaining possession for the opening minutes. It was to inform us of how the majority of the game would go; Clitheroe manage possession well but through effective defending and Clitheroe's own mistakes, Colne would break well using their speed in the backs to cover the field quickly on the break. In the first 6 minutes, Colne were 2 tries to the good and Clitheroe realising they had to work much harder to retain possession and defend much better when the ball turned over.

The forwards stuck to their task well and scrum half Worthy moving the ball well from the base, front row forwards Calton-Whitaker, Brown and Robinson were able to make good yards around the ruck. Barraclough and Lee in the second row were equally solid whilst the back row of Larkin, Horsfield and Enion were really getting around the park well both in attack and defence. The centre partnership of Stanley and Aspin was working well with Wilkinson moving the play around, asking his back line to vary the aspects of attack. Finally, the back three of Davies, Mason and Pimbley communicated well, interchanging as required and covering the many kicks the Colne were putting behind the defence.

With the amount of possession that Clitheroe were building, the points were sure to come. On 20 minutes, Wilkinson found some space on the left and using Mason as a foil he set off down the wing and managed to outpace hapless defenders to score Clitheroe's first try. This was great initially, but it only proved to spur C&N onto greater things and a try by the opposition only 2 minutes later took the score to 17-5 in the visitors' favour.

As we neared the end of the first half, Clitheroe exerted tremendous pressure on the Colne & Nelson line and after a succession of penalties, prop Brown, who was having a super game, crashed over to narrow the gap to 7 points at half time at 10-17.

Into the second half, the game opened up a little more but essentially followed a similar theme to the first half. The Colne & Nelson players, especially the forwards, were feeling the constant barrage of forward thrusts, especially from Brown's prop and partner in crime, Tom Calton-Whitaker, who didn't stop all game with his ball carrying exploits, crossing the gain line on the vast majority of occasions. After another TCW drive, Barraclough picked up a ball on the short side around 15 metres out and popped the ball to Wilkinson who found himself out on the wing. A deft jink and an overhead pass back inside found Barraclough on the 1-2 and he gratefully received the ball before crashing over for an excellent team try. The scores were nicely balanced at 15-17 to C&N with half an hour to go.

The game thereafter was nip and tuck with both sides looking dangerous. It wasn't until the last 5 minutes for the next score. C&N pushed forward and despite losing the ball, kept the pressure on Clitheroe with their solid defence. A clearing kick didn't get the distance required and it was returned with some fervour to score Colne & Nelson's final try of the game to give them a lead of 7 points, meaning Clitheroe would need at least a converted try to draw in the last 4 minutes. This certainly didn't deter this feisty Clitheroe side. They progressed downfield with some concerted drives from TCW and Brown and after C&N conceded numerous penalties on their own line, Wilkinson took a pop ball from Brown and squeezed over on the left edge to score a great try (video attached). With normal kicker Duck not available, Wilkinson took on the conversion from 5 yards in from the touchline. With some deep breaths and a hush from around the ground, Wilkinson struck the ball beautifully and the ball sailed through the uprights to level the game with what was the final kick. 22-all it finished.

It was a fine game of rugby and Clitheroe truly showed their developing grit and determination to take the game to the death. Everyone played their part and the lads will no doubt reflect as time goes on that had they defended more astutely in the first half, they could have won the game. Props Brown and Calton-Whitaker amd second row Barraclough were outstanding, with Calton-Whitaker taking Man of the Match due to the unbelievable quantity of effective drives across the whole game. Great stuff indeed!

Next week, Clitheroe travel to Eccles, a team against whom Clitheroe didn't perform at the end of last season. The team has developed well since then so we'll see what they can do against a side who are only just above them in the league.