It’s now six wins out of six this year for Workington Zebra Finches as they continued their charge for promotion with a convincing 31-0 triumph over Preston Grasshoppers at The Ellis, writes John Hastings.
Having won at Preston last week, Workington were determined to complete back-to-back victories over their Lancashire opponents from kick-off and after only five minutes opening the scoring when a well drilled scrum ended with Lottie Cammack powering her way through for an unconverted try.
Preston recovered from this early setback and made several impressive attacks, but they were unable to breach the solid, ever alert Finches defensive shield.
Before long, Workington regained advantage by swamping their opponents’ half with a succession of attacks, especially from Megan Donald, Caitlin Jenkinson and Meagan McAndrew.
However, it was another scrum that led to them increasing their lead on 27 minutes as Cammack won the loose ball before zipping through unopposed to crash down for her second try, which again went unconverted.
The final 10 minutes of the first half saw both sides cancel each other out through strong defence, especially in midfield – but the Finches only had to wait six minutes after the restart to add try number three when Caitlin Jenkinson rounded off a four pass move to coast home under the posts and set up an easy conversion for Stacey Carruthers.
Just as they did in the first half, Preston had a spell of attacking Workington’s half but the tryline remained further out of reach, with the Finches matching them at every move and scrum, with Sophie Weir especially clinical in both drives and challenges.
Workington soaked up the pressure and after several scrums of their own, hit the jackpot with 10 minutes left as Cammack triggered a chain of passes that was rounded off by Meagan McAndrew who raced home for a well-crafted try, which Carruthers wasted no time in converting.
It is to Preston’s credit that they refused to give in and they were determined to leave The Ellis with at least a consolation try, but once again Workington’s trenchant and vigilant backline were equally determined to keep that clean sheet.
It was the Finches who had the last word just before full-time when Sophie Weir topped off a fantastic personal performance with a try which – like the previous four – originated from a winning scrum. Carruthers made it a hat-trick of conversions and the final whistle blew shortly afterwards.
So another excellent performance by Workington and they will be proud of keeping their first clean sheet for a year as well as proving how lethal they can be going forward after winning scrums.
Workington stay second in RFU League 2 North, still five points behind leaders Lancaster but with a game in hand and an improved points difference of plus 36 as Lancaster’s match against Yarnbury was awarded to them as a walkover.
It’s home time again for the Finches again this Sunday when they host North Ribblesdale.
