Tamworth Stun League Champions

Tamworth took to the field for the final time in the 21/22 season welcoming newly crowned league champions Leek to Wiggington Park.
Tamworth had been in scintillating form of late with seven wins in eight games and the visitors had been is similar form over the whole season topping the table at a canter. So a good game was promised and it did not fail to deliver.
The opening exchanges were even if sometimes brutal as both sides tried to gain the upper hand. Leek were reduced to fourteen for ten minutes as their second row saw yellow for a high shot at the breakdown. Tamworth took this opportunity to edge in front with a Danny Norton penalty (3-0)
Leek then took the initiative pinning Tamworth back into their own twenty two with a succession of lineout drives but some dogged and at times last gasp defence from the hosts held them out even when they found themselves on the wrong side of a numerical imbalance as both flankers were sent to the bin within a minute of each other as the referee tried to keep control of what was becoming a feisty affair.
Leek did finally breach the Tamworth defence their driving maul eventually paying dividends the reduced numbers in defence meaning Tamworth could hold them at bay no longer (3-5)
Tamworth would go into half time with the slenderest of leads though as another Norton penalty gave them a 6-5 lead.
Half time saw the introduction of teenage hooker Max Nolan into the game to make his senior debut for Tamworth as the hugely impressive Josh Roe had to leave the field with a broken hand.
Tamworth now restored to full strength started the second period well and it was now their turn to pin Leek back in their own half winning a succession of penalty’s at the scrum an area of the game where they were quite obviously on top. The referee after losing patience with Leek’s pack awarded Tamworth a penalty try. (13-5)
Straight from the restart came a very controversial incident when as Tamworth’s Conor Banham jumped to receive the kick off he was upended in the air by a Leek player in what looked a clumsy rather than malicious challenge. The referee though saw it differently and had no hesitation in showing a straight red card to the Leek player which would mean they would have to see out the game reduced to fourteen men.
If anything this motivated Leek to push on and with a penalty and a converted try they had gotten themselves back into the lead (13-15)
The lead would only last four minutes as Tamworth scored Liam Saayman breaking a tackle in midfield before sprinting clear to score a fine try under the posts. Norton slotted the extras before taking his personal points tally to seventeen for the game when he scored another Tamworth try before converting it himself and Tamworth moved into a 27-15 lead.
Leek though didn’t back off and would reduce the deficit to five points with a converted try but Tamworth saw out the remaining time to become only the third team to be victorious against the league champions this term. Final Score Tamworth 27 Leek 22
Nigel Hall said afterwards We have finished the season as arguably the form side in the league so that gives us something to build on going forward into next season. As far as today’s game is concerned it was a typical Tamworth v Leek fixture no one left anything out there. I’m so proud of the lads today the forwards fronted up with real passion putting their already broken bodies on the line and the back line supported them weighing in with the points today an all round fantastic team performance. They can have a few weeks off now and relax before we start building towards next season when we will push for a league position that I know this group is capable of getting.