Glasson Rangers have had to forfeit today’s Firpress Cumberland Cup-tie against Distington A.
Rangers have been unable to field a team because of a crippling injury list to what is already a small squad.
Head coach Scott Burns said: “It’s very unfortunate but we have two concussion cases from last week, three other injuries, three lads away and two at work so it’s been a tough week for us running with a small squad of players.”
League secretary Lorraine Degraff said: “It’s a shame but these things can happen when you just have a small squad. Distington will be credited with a 24-0 win and go through.”
The trophy was the last won by the Distington first team before entering the National Conference this season and the newly formed A team are looking forward to the challenge of the Holmen Iggesund Cumberland ARL.
Assistant coach Ryan Hodgson said: “This is a massive learning curve for the club, our first second team since the 1990s.
“We are finding our feet slowly with some of our lads playing rugby league for the first time. We are learning and building all the time and hope to be competitive as we go along.
“It was disappointing to lose one of the early games to bad weather and another because work commitments, illness and first team calls put us down to just 12.
“But it is a relatively young side and we hope that some of them will be pushing for first team places as the season progresses.
“We are all looking forward to the Cup-tie and what the rest of the season will bring.”
Opponents Glasson had opened with two wins before narrowly going down to Aspatria in a League fixture last week.
“I thought we didn’t really fire on all cylinders last week,” admitted Glasson coach Scott Burns who expects to have some of his missing players back for this one.
There are two games in the League with Wath Brow Hornets A hosting Askam while Maryport have a home game against Egremont Rangers A.
Paul Farrell, the Wath Brow A coach, said: “We were disappointed to have our first two games called-off through no fault of our own.
“This will be our first game of the season as a result and Askam will be coming as something of an unknown quantity, having played their rugby down Barrow way or in the North West Counties.
“Our lads have been training well and it’s good to see some of our Under-18’s stepping up to open age rugby this season.
“We also have one or two former first team regulars now playing with us, people like Peter Caddy and James Dixon who will provide extra experience.”
Maryport have had two convincing victories so far in the League but Egremont Rangers will provide a sterner test.
Coach Mark Foster said: “We played them in a pre-season friendly when they turned us over so we will be looking to finish on top this time.
“We have Joel Baker and Daniel Fidler who will miss out through work but Joe Kirkup is available and will be in contention for a place. There will be over 20 players to pick from.”
Egremont coach Kevin Brown said: “It’s good to play Maryport because Mark Foster is a good friend and they are a well-drilled side.
“I was able to call upon a couple of experienced players in the friendly which helped us get the win. But there have been six or seven players out of the NCL side with injury and once they go back, we should also be stronger in the A team
“We’ve only had one game so far against Hensingham A when we were good in the first-half, but not so good in the second.
“I’m looking for us to be competitive and improve on certain areas from the Hensingham game. If we can control the ruck in attack and defence we won’t be far away
“I’ve had to call in a couple of lads who said they will help us out and like happens all over we have players missing through work, injuries and holidays.
“But at the end of the day it’s all about developing these A team players to be the next generation of NCL players for Egremont.”
