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Cockermouth had the worst possible start to the game when scrum half Mike Shaw had to retire through injury after only 2minutes. However Johnny Taylor, who has been chomping at the bit to get back on the playing field after a long term injury, was pleased to get an early introduction to the match and made an immediate impact when he released the ball quickly from a ruck to set centre Matthew Woodcock away on a pulsating run deep into the Moresby 22m area. Woodcock beat several would be tacklers but the full back was not to be foiled and he made a superb tackle to bring the attack to an end. A scrum followed and pressure on the home scrum half gave Ross Maguire the chance to score a well-taken try near the posts, Andrew Skillen knocked the conversion over to give Cockermouth a 7-0 lead.
Cockermouth continued to take the game to Moresby, good long defensive kicks were followed up well by wingers Mathew Paton and Jamie Ward to put the Moresby back three under pressure and make it difficult to get quality clearance kicks. Cockermouth didn’t have things all their own way and a powerful Moresby pack continually disrupted Cockermouth’s set piece play, restricting quality ball to a minimum.
On many occasions, Stuart Moore at number eight had to pick the ball up under considerable pressure. He was rewarded however on 36 minutes when, after a cleanly taken lineout, he emerged from the back of the ensuing maul to score in the corner. This gave Cockermouth a good 12-0 lead just before the break, but with seconds of the half remaining Moresby got themselves within touching distance of the Cockermouth goal line and after some quick thinking and speedily taken penalties they scored in the corner. A brilliant touch line conversion got Moresby back to 12-7 with the last kick of the half.
The second half proved to be a real test of the visitor’s defensive qualities with Moresby keeping Cockermouth pinned in their own territory for much of the half. Stuart Moore broke away to momentarily relieve the pressure, as did Ashley Irving who broke away and was eventually brought down. Andrew Skillen kicked the resulting penalty to give Cockermouth an eight-point advantage.
Moresby came back at Cockermouth and once more put them under immense pressure. After a series of penalties, which they attempted to run, they settled on taking three points and once again, the gap was 5 points. The remaining 20 mins saw Cockermouth tested to the full, resolute defending stopped wave after wave of attacks. To make things even more difficult Cockermouth played the last 5 minutes with a reduced compliment after 3 yellow cards in quick succession saw them reduced to 12 players. They did hold on, but only just!
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