Egremont showed that they mean business this season in Counties 1 Cumbria when they beat Cockermouth 20-15.
The Wasps and Upper Eden had been regarded as favourites to battle out the title but Egremont might be able to throw a spoke in the wheel.
Due to a club wedding this game, which was originally a home fixture for Cockermouth, was reversed to Bleach Green with the pitch looking in great condition under the floodlights.
A much-changed Cockermouth side was quickly up against it after knocking on at the kick off and the young, physical and spirited home side would soon capitalise.
After quick ball on the right side, easy hands allowed the biggest full back in the country, Dane Richardson to score in the right corner.
The visitors settled down and their bigger pack responded well with some decent carries and front foot ball. A ten metre attacking line-out resulted in a forwards try with a well-structured maul crashing over the line, but which one of them was at the bottom to touchdown was not revealed.
Suffice to say it was 5-5 but unfortunately for the Wasps, re-starts were not going well and they didn’t find decent field position before being turned over.
Egremont, defending very well with big hits, working in pairs, quickly used the turn over and good hands again put right winger Nathan Preston in for a well-finished try,
After his debut last week, young stand-off Dan Woodcock had been challenged by coach Ross Mills to back himself more at the line and go through.
He had done this well but after 25 minutes he did exceptionally from inside his own half to beat three defenders, before swapping the ball well to use left and right fends and rounded the full back with ease to score a superb try. He followed-up by landing the conversion.
The restart was taken well by captain Ant Davies but crucially good field position wasn’t found and Egremont were straight back on the attack and a clear late tackle gave Richardson an easy penalty which he landed for a narrow 13-12 lead.
At the end of the first half an easy kick in front of the sticks to give Wasps the lead was ignored and a quick tap gave Phil Coyles an edge and as winger Fraser Murray went in to score they were brought back for a forward pass.
The second half wasn’t as good a game as the first but would see the Wasps have more possession while the Egremont team showed great defence.
When Cockermouth lost a scrum Egremont moved the ball quickly and accurately for Callum Aitken to crash over under the posts and Richardson converted.
The Wasps fought hard to get back into the game and Woodcock hit the upright with a penalty attempt.
Soon after he made a great break, and a big tackle on him didn’t prevent the youngster getting a great offload to supporting centre Mark Watson to score, but when the closest Egremont defenders called for a forward pass the referee blew for one.
A penalty for an earlier offside was kicked by Woodcock to make it a five point game and the Wasps kept on the pressure, with Egremont having to defend stoutly led by Jimmy Temple. Any turn-overs gained would be punished by kicks back into the Wasps half from full back Richardson.
In the closing stages Cockermouth reverted to a kicking game, early in the phases with chip kicks and cross field kicks which were all fielded well by the Egremont back three.
The Wasps had one late chance to win the game when the pack went at the line with Robbie Skelton then Adam Brough held up.
Egremont coach Adam Redhead, who had earlier overseen a draw at Wigton and a win over Workington, said: “It was a very close game where we created much more within the game but were not clinical enough.
“We deserved the win in the end as our defence in the last 20 minutes was incredible but our discipline was poor which kept giving Cockermouth the chance to come back at us.
“But we knocked them back and forced the errors which allowed us to clear our lines. Our captain Jimmy Temple was outstanding.”
