Tamworth travelled to Cannock, to open up their Midlands 3 West North league campaign, a re-match of the Staffs Cup fixture just three weeks ago. There were a number of changes, as the squad starts to return to full strength. Dan Boardman, Martyn Bowden, Liam McGreevy, Lee Bradshaw and Martin Dearne remained in the pack from the previous fixture, a couple of positional changes, joined by the returning Stuart Burrows, Rich Morris and Rob Hough to complete the starting eight. The backline showed four changes, two positional, two personnel, the Archer brothers, Ben and Matt, coming in at centre and fullback respectively, to join skipper John Borthwick, wings Rob Gemmell and Jon Arnold with Danny Norton moving to flyhalf and Ben Shorthouse moving to centre.
The team took to the pitch in good spirits, off the back of a good warmup, they soon found themselves 3-0 up courtesy of a Norton penalty.
Cannock stormed back, applying pressure down the sloping pitch, utilising their heavy forward pack. The set piece was going the way of the home side, as Tamworth struggled to make the new combinations work. Liam McGreevy saw yellow for an momentary lapse of discipline, but despite their numerical disadvantage, Tamworth managed to win the ball and move it neatly through midfield, giving Rob Gemmell the ball just inside his own half with room to work in. The rangy winger hit full stride, and powered away from the covering defence up the right flank, coming round to score under the posts. Norton added the conversion to push Tamworth to a 10-0 lead.
Cannock bounced back immediately. Winning a penalty, they drove the ball into the corner, and executed a well-rehearsed catch and drive, crashing over to halve the deficit, 10-5.
Spurred on, Tamworth went back on the attack, and in an almost mirrored fashion, won a penalty of their own, and opted for a lineout. Likewise, a well-rehearsed catch and drive saw the Town pack surge over the line, Dan Boardman the man to apply the finishing touch. Norton again added the conversion, leaving Tamworth 17-5 up as half time came.
With the lead on the scoreboard, and the advantage of the sloping pitch in the second half, Tamworth entered the remaining 40 minutes feeling confident. Cannock however seemed inspired to rise to the challenge on home turf, and came back with renewed intensity. Tamworth coughed up possession in midfield, and Cannock hacked the ball upfield, with the flanker looking odds on to score, Matty Archer came out of nowhere to win the footrace, but in the process knocked the ball dead, earning Cannock a penalty and himself a yellow card in the process. Tamworth managed to hold out, and some sterling defence from Ben Shorthouse and Ben Archer in the centres, managed to drive Cannock back towards halfway, however, the referee deemed they had infringed. Conceding a dubious penalty on halfway, the visitors became architects of their own downfall, arguing the decision with the referee earning Cannock, not one, but two additional ten metre awards. This pushed the penalty within the kickers range, and he duly closed the score to 17-8.
Tamworth made changes, introducing Gaz Skirving and Paul Willars to the fray, and put the ball deep into Cannock’s half from the kickoff. With the positive intent of applying pressure, Tamworth were over eager at the breakdown, and conceded yet another penalty. This was becoming all too familiar a pattern, as the mounting penalty count was killing any chance Town had of finding a foothold in the game. Cannock kicked long and went for another catch and drive. John Borthwick was able to prevent the ball being grounded in the first instance, forcing a scrum 5 metres out. From the base, Willars broke to buy some room for the clearance, but a Cannock forward emerged, rather dubiously, on the Town side of the breakdown, fishing the ball out and flicking it to an attacker loitering wide. As Tamworth looked to the official for the award of the blatant penalty, he waved play on, and Cannock showed why you should always play to the whistle, and stole the initiative to break down the right wing for a second try. 17-13.
Further infringements, again saw Tamworth reduced to 14, and Cannock took further advantage. Winning a steady stream of penalties, they played to their strengths, and kicked to the corner, drilling another catch and drive, over the line to put themselves in the lead. Tamworths discipline was again suspect at the very end which saw them finish the game with only 13.
Tamworth had a couple of late penalty chances to win, but from extreme angles of either touchline, it was always a tough ask, ultimately going down to an opening day loss by just the single point, 18-17. Plenty of lessons to be learnt from this fixture.
Saying this nothing should be taken away from a very dogged Cannock side who grafted all game and proved nothing can be taken for granted in this very tough league.