The Cobras at times played extremely well, although they also made several unforced errors during the game which continually put a halt to the momentum which they had built.

To be fair to the Raiders they finished the game with practically no bench and did well to keep the score at where it finished.

Claro were out of the blocks quickly after a mistake by the Raiders in the opening set. From the restart Middleton picked up Hinton with a neat pass and the Cobras front rower strolled over next to the posts untouched to score. Badior’s conversion gave the Cobras a 6-0 lead after only three minutes.   

As play continued both sides were guilty of simple mistakes but it was the Cobras who were able to compose themselves and again it was Middleton who picked up Bradley close to the line to send him over for the first of his two tries. Once again Badior converted and Claro had raced to a 12-0 lead.

Midway through the first half Stroud hit back with a try when their five eight stepped through the Claro defense close to their line and close the margin to 12-6.

The remainder of the half did produce some exciting moments and passages of play, although most of those occasions ended with a simple error which frustrated the play and the score remained that way until halftime.

Claro had the better of play early in the second half and it wasn’t long before Bradley found space down the blind and in turn threw a nice pass for Foot to race over in the corner. The conversion was unsuccessful but the Cobras now lead 16-6.

At the 65th minute mark the Cobras made a poor read of play by racing up out of the line which in turn left plenty of space for the Raiders centre to score and close the gap to 16-10.

To their credit the Cobras regrouped quickly and soon found themselves deep in opposition territory. Bradley picked up his second try for the afternoon when he was simply too strong for the defense and planted the ball over the line to give Claro a 22-10 lead.

Jack Alison completed the scoring for the Cobras when he, Bradley and Hinton combined beautifully with clever passing to outclass the defense for a wonderful try. Badior added the extras to give the Cobras a well deserved 28-10 win.

There were a number of good performances for the Cobras, none better than Whaleboat, Sandy Alison and Rits in the backs and Hinton, Bradley and Jack Alison in the forwards. Claro also welcomed the return of Cal Gorman from injury with a great contribution off the bench.

Well done to the boys and the club, to finish in second placing on the competition ladder is a wonderful achievement.

That effort will need to be backed up with even greater show of strength this weekend when Clarence Town (second) will play Gloucester (third) in the qualifying semi final at Lakeside Oval Raymond Terrace on Saturday at 10am.