In their derby clash at Davidson Park Aspatria struggled to make an impact against a Keswick side whose mix of determination and efficiency delivered a 27-3 victory.
The excellent kicking game of Keswick stand-off, Kieran Mewse was largely responsible for establishing a gap between the teams both on the scoreboard, and also ensuring that when Aspatria did attack it was usually from a deep field position.
The first quarter of the game was largely devoid of action in either 22 but a Mewse penalty put the ahead and was the only early noteworthy occurrence.
It took Aspatria twenty plus minutes to mount a first forage to the home try line. A burst through the middle by centre Ryan Scott set up a perfect position for a try. It was not to be but the effort seemed to put life into Aspatria and they produced a decent ten minutes of action.
Whilst this was in progress Mewse was still able to pop a couple of penalties between the posts to keep the scoreboard ticking over in favour of Keswick.
It looked likely that 9-0 would be the half-time score but a late penalty by Aspatria’s Matty Irving reduced the deficit.
It had not been a great first 40 minutes for either side and certainly, at this point, the end result remained very much in doubt.
However, after the break Keswick gradually took control of the game and almost immediately after the restart Mewse added another three points and the game became increasingly concentrated in the Aspatria half.
This was the best of the day’s rugby with the crowd appreciating, not only Keswick’s well-constructed attacks, but also the ferocity of the Aspatria defence.
However, Aspatria paid a price in their last ditch defending with back row Jamie Lightfoot sent to the sin bin.
A sensible change of tactics followed from Keswick as a result. They turned down the easiest penalty opportunity of the day and a certain three points to chase a try.
Yet again Aspatria held out but at the cost of a further penalty. An excellent decision by Mewse to launch a cross-field kick caught-out Aspatria and home winger Joe Allday was handed a simple walk in to take the home advantage out to 17-3.
Following the re-start Mewes added a further long range penalty and at 20-3 Aspatria were deep in trouble.
The visitors were just about still in the fight but badly needed a score. This should have been delivered in a period of intense pressure on the Keswick line. It was Keswick’s turn to defend and hey did well to keep Aspatria at bay.
This was a key moment in the game and marked Aspatria’s last realistic chance to get something out of the contest.
Frustration crept in amongst the visitor ranks and Scott was sent to the bin. Keswick were now happy to feed of Aspatria errors and were able to see the game out comfortably with a second try by Ryan Weir.
It was a deserved win for Keswick leaving Aspatria with no complaints but plenty of work to do in this week’s training.
