West Cumbria Colts played their final 15-a-side game of the season at Wigton against Darlington Mowden Park.
The visitors had made this game into a mini tour, taking in some of the sites and activities that West Cumbria has to offer before playing the game.
The match was a fast-flowing affair with plenty of tries for both teams.
The game was played in 20 minute segments and West Cumbria got off to a flying start with some individual line breaks resulting in a number of tries.
Despite DMP clawing two back before the first break, the West Cumbria side were in the ascendency.
This changed in the next 20 minutes, when DMP started to make some line breaks. There were some strong last ditch cover tackles by West Cumbria, but DMP’s pressure to build a score began to tell and a number of tries followed.
Heading into the final 20 minutes DMP held the lead.
On a hot day, however, it was always going to be tough and despite this both sides rose to the occasion and went for it.
Whilst the first two 20 minutes had a lot of individual breaks, the final 20 minutes saw the support play from both teams come to fruition.
In the end West Cumbria edged the scoring o take the win.
It was an entertaining game to end the season and all that is left for this year’s West Cumbria team is some invitational 7’s in June at Carlisle RUFC.
This year was a pilot for the West Cumbria Colts and the main aim was to enable Under-18’s to play some rugby union at their own age group and enable players to be integrated into their respective senior clubs.
In addition, to this there were two players, that had previously not been signed with a youth club that played and are now looking to join their local senior set-ups.
Head coach Andrew Branthwaite said “It’s not been easy to get lads from all the areas together.
“The team spirit when they are there has been fantastic, but availability for training and matches has been tough.
“However, when you look back and realise that 32 lads in West Cumbria have managed to play some rugby union, it does make it worthwhile.
“There has been some good integration of these lads into a lot of the senior clubs too, with most at least attending training.
“My own club, Workington, haven’t had as many of the lads training yet, but the majority of the 11 lads that represented West Cumbria have said they are keen to get into the seniors for next season, so hopefully we can put the steps in place to make that happen.
“So, at present, we are at over 50 per cent integration into the seniors, but hopefully for the start of next season, I would like to think we would be over 80 per cent.
“There has definitely been a lot I’ve learnt from how we set up the side at the start and throughout, which I will be passing on to the coaches that will be leading next year’s group.”
Two Wigton coaches are going to head the West Cumbria Colts for next season.
Braithwaite added: “This will keep it fresh, but with the same end goal of giving lads opportunities to play Under-18s rugby and then to integrate them into their senior clubs.”
Any West Cumbria clubs or players interested in this for next season, can contact Branthwaite on 07725236661.
