Sorrow -in - Furness

Your roving reporter Jamie Taylor reports from Cumbria..........................

On the back of their impressive 47-7 win over Rossendale’s 3Rd team last week Clitheroe’s 2nd team found themselves travelling to Barrow-in-Furness to play Hawcoat Park. With a strong starting XV and plenty of experience on the bench the Maroon and Gold were brimming with confidence.

Straight from the kick off this confidence was apparent with constant pressure from Clitheroe which eventually lead to Stuart Railton taking it over the whitewash in order to open the scoring. Unfortunately just placing the conversion wide. Clitheroe lead 5-0.

Almost immediately Hawcoat responded with a try and conversion of their own through some fast hands taking full advantage of Clitheroe’s unset defensive line. Hawcoat lead 7-5.

Not to be deterred Clitheroe applied the pressure again and had Hawcoat camped on their own 5 metre line for a solid 5 minutes. This pressure seemed to get the better of some players and within minutes Hawcoat found themselves 2 men light due to a high tackle and a loose tongue.

From the subsequent penalty Clitheroe’s forwards managed to scrum their way over the line with Will Spenceley-Jones scoring. Clitheroe’s conversion was perfect. Clitheroe lead 12-7.

However despite being 2 men to the good Clitheroe could not capitalize and Hawcoat took advantage of Clitheroe’s over commitment at the breakdown and scored 2 try’s, both of which were converted and took full advantage of 2 penalties that were awarded to them for handling the ball in the ruck by Clitheroe. Hawcoat led 27-12 at half time with all their players back on the field.

Clitheroe had left themselves with a mountain to climb and started the 2nd half as they did the first with some great pressing. This pressing and fast ball allowed winger Austin Wensley to open his account for the day with a fantastic dash into the corner. The conversion was missed and Hawcoat still led 27-17.

Hawcoat then responded with yet another try of their own through passing it wide and burning down the wing with pace. The conversion was made and they increased their lead to 34-17.

Now Clitheroe had to respond and respond they did, with 2 tries and a conversion from veterans Andrew Thornber and Andrew “Ralph” Rigby both coming from fantastic pressure taking the score to 34-29

Hawcoat however not to be deterred scored another try from the kick off. They took advantage of a wayward pass and the following conversion left Clitheroe little time on the clock, trailing 41-29.

From the restart Clitheroe applied pressure like they had all game and yet again Andrew Rigby found himself carrying the ball over the line much to the team’s joy but the conversion was just wide. Hawcoat still led 41-34.

The hosts thought the game was done with 10 minutes to go and Clitheroe showed them that was far from fact. With fantastic pressure Clitheroe held them back but due to some inconsistent refereeing yet another penalty was awarded to the hosts and converted.

The final score 44-34 to Hawcoat Park.

A lot positives and an admirable performance from both teams.