Cockermouth RUFC vs. Aspatria Eagles
27th September 2008
It took Cockermouth 10 minute to undo the dead lock in this very competitive game, a break down the blindside of a ruck saw exceptional close quarter inter-passing between backs and forwards giving Owen David the chance to score in the corner. Aspatria quickly retaliated and scored a penalty to make the score 5-3.
Cockermouth were made to work hard in all aspects of the game and although they dominated possession and territory for the majority of the first half, they found it difficult to breach the visitor’s defence. On 37mins, after some good forward drives, the ball was released along the back line for Alan Denwood to score in the corner. Ross McGuire, capping a superb performance in his new position of centre, converted beautifully from the touchline to give the home side an advantage of 12-3 at half time.
Cockermouth began the second half strongly with man of the match Ben Swift, making his 1st team debut at fly half, inspiring his back line to play some excellent free flowing rugby. After several phases of forward drives Aspatria stole the ball and appeared to have cleared their lines, however, Luke Lowca fielded the ball and drove forward. The ball was quickly recycled by Swift along the backs for Alan Denwood to score his second try, one of the best seen by Cockermouth in recent years.
On 55mins the lead was extended further when Ross McGuire fielded a kick on his 22m line and returned the favour with a long kick down field. Working hard to follow his kick McGuire tackled the Aspatria full back who put the ball to ground, on hand was veteran Jeff Peet who pounced to scoop up the loose ball and release Andrew Skillen to score under the posts. Skillen converted his own try to give Cockermouth a comfortable lead and a feeling that the momentum they had developed would create more tries.
From this point however, Aspatria came back into the game and worked extremely hard to unsettle Cockermouth’s rhythm. They achieved their goal and although they didn’t score themselves, kept the home side from further scores. The home side made changes and introduced another 1st team debutant in Mark Holmes who, like Swift, acquitted himself extremely well in the senior ranks.
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