Aspatria suffered an opening day setback with a 51-12 reversal at Middlesbrough in Regional 2 North.
No excuses are available, it was simply a below par performance against a home side who put in a near faultless display.
It started to go wrong for Aspatria in the early stages of the game. The visitors conceded a series of early penalties as they struggled with the new tackle laws and Middlesbrough took advantage of one of these to open the scoring with a penalty.
The indiscipline continued and with only eight minutes on the clock the referee lost patience with Aspatria and yellow carded prop Arron Sullivan. In the same action, influential forward, Phil Dixon also left the field with a leg injury.
Middlesbrough turned this penalty opportunity into the first try of the game with a fluid back line movement that crossed the pitch right to left outflanking any defence that Aspatria could muster.
More penalties followed and they went down to 13 players when Jack Clegg was yellow carded. It was one way traffic and with two men short a second try for Middlesbrough was inevitable.
To their credit Aspatria defended well despite reduced numbers but this resistance was undoubtedly energy sapping on a very hot day in the north east.
On 25 minutes Aspatria had no answer to the pace and precision by which the hosts moved the ball towards the try line.
The charge was stopped several times by committed tackling but the recycling was done to perfection and a third try scored.
The bonus point fourth try followed only minutes later and at 25-0 it looked game over.
Surprisingly, Aspatria used this low point to provide Middlesbrough with some problems. Handling errors dwindled away and play transferred to the home 22 where a solid scrum provided a platform for a first assault on the home try line.
The initial surge stalled but the ball was retained and with numbers on the blind side Josh Watson was able to glide between two defender to dot down in the corner to finish the half 25-5 in arrears.
Aspatria started the second half looking like the team in the ascendency. For a full ten minutes play was solely in the home half with the visitors enjoying the lion’s share of possession.
Several half chances were created to bridge the gap on the scoreboard but none were turned into points in the face of Middlesbrough’s well marshalled defence.
On 52 minutes the home side pounced on a Aspatria handling error and with alarming speed not only broke the Black Reds hold on territory but transferred play to within inches of the try line.
Aspatria scrambled to defend the incursion but Middlesbrough would not be denied and the second phase of attack delivered a fifth try.
This was another turning point in the game. Failure to score and then conceding a breakaway try impacted on Aspatria’s resolve and very quickly Middlesbrough were able to add two more tries to their tally, moving the scoreboard to 44-5.
Aspatria did manage a second try of their own and it was quite a special effort from second row Tom Gardner whose determined 20-yard gallop to the line was unstoppable.
Into the final 10 minutes and Middlesbrough’s performance demanded the last word. Aspatria had defended for the bulk of the game and this effort was showing as tackles were missed allowing the home side and easy final score to round off their day.
Time will tell if this was just an off day for Aspatria.
Certainly, the coaching team will have compiled a list of issues to work on. What is not in doubt is that Middlesbrough are genuine contenders for the league championship if they maintain this level of performance.
