LAST Saturday saw the long awaited clash between the All Blacks and the Phoenix, and it was the new boys of Pendle Phoenix that clinched victory with the final play of the game.
Both sides entertained the crowd with their open running rugby, and it was Pendle that drew first blood.
The ball was turned over at a ruck, and when Nick Martin took a short pass, he crashed into the Colne defence and off loaded the ball to Ben Peverley, who kept the charge going.
He found support from Danny Rowlands, who threw a long pass to Sonny Waddington, who swerved around the defence to score in the corner.
Colne used their forwards to dominate the scrums, and they were awarded a penalty try when Pendle collapsed the scrum.
Hugo Leaver added the conversion to give Colne a two-point lead.
Phoenix continued to attack, and only stong tackling kept them out, but Jonny Harper latched onto a short pass from Dave Morris, and his swerve allowed him to slice open the defence and score.
Danny Rowland converted, and the lead swung to 12-7 to Pendle Phoenix.
Just before half-time, Colne used their pace man Matty Tindall to sprint around the Phoenix defence and score a well-deserved try to bring the score to 12-14 in Colne’s favour.
Pendle used their substitutes at half-time to try and inject a bit more pace into the game, but a misunderstanding in defence saw Tindall collect his second try as he once again outpaced the cover defence to score.
The conversion was good and Colne stretched their lead to 12-19.
Phoenix continued to use their back row of Wiseman and McNamee to make inroads into the Colne defence, and it was skipper Aldo Trapanese who drove over the line to pull the score back to 19-17 to Colne.
With the final play of the afternoon, Pendle were awarded a penalty and Danny Rowland stoked the ball over the crossbar to break the hearts of Colne and give Pendle Phoenix the victory 20-19.
The large crowd were treated to some great attacking rugby from both sides, and rugby was the winner.
James Finnucane was voted the Last Trading Post man of the match.
Pendle would also like to thank West Riding Hyundai, Colne for sponsoring the match ball.