Keswick 2nds earned their first win in the Counties 1 Cumbria League when they beat Millom 34-29 in a thriller at Davidson Park.
Although Keswick had beaten St. Benedict’s on their League debut a week earlier it had counted as a loss because they were responsible for the game being played with uncontested scrums.
Against a very experienced and powerful Millom side the home team had six changes to the previous weeks team with Ned Barnes making his senior debut at full back. He showed a lot of maturity and calmness beyond his years.
Keswick showed their intent to play with pace and patience to try and manipulate their bigger opponents. This paid dividends when with their first meaningful attack they got into Millom’s 22 and from a resulting ruck powerful number eight Olly Anderton powered over the line with Ben Clark kicking the conversion.
Millom looked dangerous with ball in hand but Keswick showed a desire and heart in their defensive structure. This led to Millom spilling the ball with Lewis Pepper capitalising and scoring under the posts and Clark converting again.
Keswick stuck to their tactics of moving the ball around quickly which eventually led to Callum Oswald scoring Keswick’s third try.
Millom kept to their strengths, using their big forwards and were beginning to make inroads. They eventually broke the Keswick defence with the prop Kieron Coulson scoring an unconverted try.
Keswick immediately bounced back from the kick off. The forwards carried the ball hard to get over the gain line when quick ball to the backs left space for the influential Callum Tunstall to exploit and score.
Millom were beginning to exert pressure and were having more success in the scrums and breakdowns. Then just before half time they scored a second try through Kian McPherson which was converted by Robbie Pattinson.
Going into the second-half 24-12 behind there seemed a shift of momentum benefiting Millom. Their forwards were beginning to make big in roads into the Keswick half with the lock McPherson scoring his second, which was not converted.
Millom were in the ascendancy and with the amount of defending that Keswick were doing it was beginning to take its toll. The visitors scored again through their full-back John Falconer and although the conversion was missed they only trailed by two points.
Keswick’s captain Carrick Wharmby led from the front to rally his team with some big carries which set the platform from which to play patient rugby.
Starving Millom of any decent ball made them loose patience and they started to infringe giving away penalties which Clark duly kicked to touch deep in Millom’s territory.
From a resulting passage of play and manipulation of the Millom defence Hayden Holmes was able to score and Clark converted.
Millom kept to their tactics using their big men to make in-roads into the opposition half and then releasing their backs for the winger Ryan Dickinson to score with Robbie Pattinson adding the extras. With only five minutes left and Keswick leading 31-29 it was still anyone’s game.
Keswick slowly made their way up the pitch building pressure which led to a Millom player transgressing and giving away a penalty. It was within kicking distance so Clark stepped up and calmly slotted the ball between the posts,
Keswick duly saw out the remaining time to claim the victory with Ben Clark being named man of the match.
