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After enduring the coast road to Barrow, Cockermouth arrived late and were assisted by the referee who helped to give out the shirts in order to get the match underway as quickly as possible.
The visitors were slow to settle and escaped an early scare when the home center crossed the line but was penalized for a double movement. This seemed to spur Cockermouth into action and they raised their game to put in a superb first half performance. BAE were thwarted on a couple more occasions by strong defensive tackling from Ashley Irving and Alan Denwood. They did eventually cross the line after a quick penalty tap under the Cockermouth posts and the conversion gave them a seven point lead.
Cockermouth now took the initiative and played some fluid attacking rugby. Slick handling saw Alan Denwood through but he was brought down just short of the line. Minutes later Denwood pounced on a mistake by the BAE backs to break away but after beating three would be tacklers he was brought down in the home 22. From the scrum Cockermouth stole the ball against the head and Ra Thompson picked the ball up at the back to drive forward. Support was quick to arrive and the big home pack were driven into their in goal area for Ra Thompson to touch down.
The visitor's backs soon opened up the home defense and quick passing, with close support, put Denwood over the try line out wide. A difficult touchline conversion from Andrew Skillen gave Cockermouth a 12 - 7 lead. An injury to Guy Jeffreys, playing his best game to date, saw 'dynamo' Mike Hutton take the field and Cockermouth were in the ascendancy. Playing with the confidence that they could get a result from the second half.
However the second period started in the worst possible way for the visitors as the BAE winger tried a speculative punt forward and the referee adjudged that the home player had been impeded. A quick tap penalty in Cockermouth's 22 led to a BAE try to level the scores. BAE took the game to Cockermouth and scored a try on 58 minutes that effectively won the game. Clearing the ball from a penalty to within 20m of the Cockermouth goal line, BAE won the ball from the line out to score in the corner. Cockermouth never gave up but could not prevent a further two tries.
A disappointing final score flattered the home side but Cockermouth can take a lot of positives from this game, particularly from the first half when a very young side started to gel.
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