One of Cumberland/Cumbria’s finest rugby union players was David Robinson, now sadly ravaged by the effects of dementia.
He would have been tickled pink to hear that a West Cumbria side had been formed and was playing in League competition as he was long an advocate of a district team to give increased opportunities to county club players.
Recently playing their first match were West Cumbria Under-18s, competing in the North East and Cumbria League when they hosted Billingham RUFC at The Ellis Sports Ground, Workington.
The team was made up of players from Aspatria, Cockermouth, St Benedict’s, Wigton and Workington and they produced an entertaining game to watch.
Both sides were wanting to use all 15 players, playing a mix of moving the ball around the field and some shorter forward play.
After both sides threatened early doors with ball in hand, it was the home side that were first on the score board.
Following good pressure by West Cumbria some strong go forward forced a penalty infringement from Billingham which led to Matty Irving slotting the first points.
Billingham looked to hit back early but a good claim by Ethan Dann off the restart settled the home side down again. It was Ethan’s first ever game of rugby and he showed promise getting stuck in with some tackles and some elusive go forward.
It wasn’t long before West Cumbria had another opportunity following an attempt to get the ball back from left winger Stuart Reid leading to a penalty. Following some nice catch and pass play from the backs Alfie Sapsed was sent flying down the right wing. Only some last ditch tackling from Billingham denied him the first try.
Not long after this, however, some good go forward from the home pack led by captain Harvey Smith, along with Keane Martin, Riley Thwaites and Sam Blair allowed Irving to reach out and score out wide.
Billingham did get more into it as the game went on and managed to score a try just before half- time.
Jak Lee and Fletcher Creasey put some nice creative plays together for West Cumbria and along with centre James Ditchburn had the backs starting to tick.
Billingham’s scrums in the second half were fairly dominant and it took some last line of defence tackles from full back Steven Caulfield and Robbie Carruthers to deny the visitors.
Fenn Wilson, Fred Smeaton, James Roberts and James Rooney worked particularly hard in the pack despite the pressure from Billingham in the scrums.
Rugby Union is a team game and the fact Billingham have learned over time how to play as a team, came to its own in the final 20 minutes, when the West Cumbrian wall was breached and this was followed by a couple more tries late on to the visitors.
It finished 22-8 to Billingham but the West Cumbria Colts can be pleased with their first ever game. There was a lot of strong individual performances from the home side. Kean Martin really epitomised the effort of the side gaining the West Cumbria man of the match award.
