Cockermouth produced a fine team performance to win their Counties 1 Cumbria game at Millom by 20-0.
The club had put out a second team on the Friday night against Keswick and had a mounting injury list.
In the end they took the long and winding road to Millom with just 15 men and a couple of retired players on stand-by if needed.
In the end the line-up meant a substantial number of players out of position, at Millom who were on the back of a convincing win a week earlier against Wigton.
Cockermouth started off really positively, with a strong wind in their favour and spent the majority of the first half in their opponent’s territory. Millom defended exceptionally well, keeping out numerous attacks from the visitors.
In the dying moments of the first half Cockermouth were awarded a penalty, and, listened to their coach’s instructions to go for goal, which Luke Armstrong successfully slotted over.
In the first-half there was a clear difference between the two sides as far as ball retention was concerned.
In the first half, Cockermouth went eight phases at one point, but Millom had only managed four at best. This panned out in the second half, as time and time again Cockermouth drove forward, went to ground, spotted well and rucked over the ball for a series of consistent phases.
All the forwards played their part and unrelenting pressure, with calm control of the ball led to a five metre scrum.
From there the Cockermouth pack trundled over the Millom line for number eight Will Gate to drop on the ball and score the opening try.
Three clearing kicks from the home side pinned Cockermouth back into their own 22, but they calmly regrouped and started moving back up the pitch, retaining the ball with well-drilled driving, mauling and rucking.
Continued pressure enabled centre James Sewell to make a decisive break by injecting pace and a straight running line to score a fine individual try.
The final try was scored by young Ben Irving who outpaced a tiring defence, breaking two last ditch tackles to cap an outstanding performance, both in attack and defence, scoring out to the right of the posts. Armstrong added the extras and determined defence in the dying moments enabled the visitors to keep a clean sheet.
