Zebras master the weather and Oldham
Last updated 19:23, Thursday, 30 October 2008
WORKINGTON maintained a top four spot in North Lancs Cumbria when they beat Oldham 23-14 at the Ellis Sports Ground.
But both Wigton, who should have been at home to Heaton Moor, and Keswick, who were due to entertain Tyldesley, had their matches postponed.
Workington and Oldham did well in atrocious conditions to produce an entertaining game, with both sides doing particularly well against the wind.
Oldham took the elements in the first half and were soon on the offensive, scoring a try inside two minutes when full-back Gary Dodd, a Widnes rugby league player, broke through to score under the posts and Graham Barber added the conversion.
It did not take Workington long to hit back and winger Robert Hodgson looped round from the right to go over on the left-hand side for an unconverted try.
Workington continued to play some neat rugby in the conditions and when they forced a push-over the referee awarded a penalty try. Unfortunately Kevin Harper’s conversion attempt from right in front was blown back at him without crossing the bar.
In the second half Harper extended the Workington lead with a penalty but Oldham started well against the wind and flanker Ron Cooper scored their second try which Barber converted to edge the visitors in front 14-13.
It was Harper who restored the Workington lead when he knocked over another penalty but the decisive score didn’t come until seven minutes from the end.
Good work by the Zebras pack ended with prop Ben Lanighan charging over from 15 metres. Harper converted to give Workington a nine-point cushion.
But when Harper had a kick charged down Oldham broke well and it took a brilliant tackle by Andrew Branthwaite two metres from the line to deny the visitors another score which would have made life interesting over the last few minutes.
Workington managed to clear the danger and went on to register their fourth win of the season.
In the Cumbria League, two of the scheduled six games were called off because of the weather but it was nearly three.
St Benedict’s were unable to play Creighton at Mirehouse because of a waterlogged pitch but they arranged to switch the fixture to Carlisle. It proved to be a profitable move by the West Cumbrians as they went on to win 67-9.
Matches between Netherhall and Aspatria Eagles, and Wigton Wanderers and Workington Steelers were both postponed because of unfit pitches.
Copeland rivals Whitehaven and Egremont fought a tough forwards battle at the Playground as the match was played in horrendous conditions. The only score was a penalty from Egremont’s Ryan Barton.
The heavy rain made Cockermouth’s journey south to Millom rather more hazardous than normal, However, the conditions once the game started were no different to those experienced on many previous visits – windy, wet and cold.
It finished 32-0 to the home side, who are the league leaders, and for the most part was a resilient defensive display by the visitors.
Cockermouth played with the advantage of the strong wind and slight rain in the first half.
On many occasions they kicked for position deep into the Millom half in the hope that clearance kicks would be difficult against the wind and possession would be regained from the set piece.
However, Cockermouth struggled to gain quality ball and Millom were able to contain the attacks through playing to their strength of forward drives, rucks and more forward drives to clear their lines.
Whatever Cockermouth tried, Millom defended resolutely, retaining and driving forward. The half remained scoreless.
It was always going to be an uphill battle for Cockermouth against the deteriorating elements, and when Millom scored a converted try and a penalty just after the break, coupled with the earlier loss of fly half Ben Swift through injury, the writing was on the wall.
Further tries and a conversion increased the lead to 22-0 and at this point, considering Millom’s dominance, it would have been easy for Cockermouth to capitulate and go under to a cricket score.
But they didn’t and went on to play some extremely good rugby themselves, keeping the ball tight and posing problems for Millom by playing them at their own game, often gaining 40 metres at a time through many phases of play.
Unfortunately, once a breakdown occurred, Millom would regain possession to once again continue their relentless attacks.
Superb defence kept the home side out until the last five minutes when two more tries were scored.
Gosforth Greengarth just edged out Moresby 5-0 in a hard-fought game, which produced another example of players doing well to see it through.
Carlisle and Aspatria both suffered disappointing defeats in the North Two East – both matches they should have won.
The worrying thing for Carlisle must be their failure to turn their regular forward dominance into points as they lost 25-9 at Old Crossleyans.
Aspatria will rue a catalogue of second-half handling errors that should have given them a deserved away win at Morpeth. Instead they suffered a 21-5 defeat.
The Black Reds started brightly and within the first three minutes forward pressure forced a penalty. Mike Scott turned down the opportunity of taking the points and kept the ball alive.
Morpeth defended well and Aspatria were forced back into their own half but this set the pattern for the day.
Within the next few minutes Morpeth had no hesitation in kicking two long-range penalties into the breeze, to ease themselves into a six-point lead, and a third soon followed.
The Black Reds should have been further behind on 24 minutes when Morpeth broke through but a final pass went astray.
Four minutes later, however, a well-constructed forward move brought Morpeth a deserved try in the corner that went unconverted.
Fourteen points adrift, Aspatria began the fight back and did not have to wait too long for their reward when on 32 minutes winger Lee Tinnion did extremely well to force himself over in the corner for an unconverted try following good work by centre Lee Askew.
Aspatria dominated the second half but to their intense frustration were unable to turn this superiority into points.
Scott continued his policy of declining penalty attempts but put the visitors into good field position from where they launched attack after attack.
Morpeth occasionally used the wind to kick themselves out of danger but such moments were fleeting and the Black Reds remorselessly returned to the attack.
The home defence was sound but not good enough to prevent the Black Reds creating several try scoring opportunities.
To the consternation of the coaching team, at least three seemingly certain scores were missed when a final pass went to ground.
Unfortunately, to add insult to injury, it was Morpeth who had the last laugh. In the last five minutes of the game the home side broke out and were able to seal victory with a second converted try that proved to be the last act of the match.
Fixtures – North Two East: Aspatria v Gateshead.
North Lancs Cumbria: Workington v Keswick.
Cumbria: Cockermouth v St Benedicts, Millom v Aspatria Eagles, Moresby v Netherhall, Workington Steelers v Greengarth.
