The bitter taste of defeat was administered to Workington for the first time this year as their eight-match winning run came to an end as they went down 27-26 at Lancaster Lionesses, writes John Hastings.
When Lancaster won at The Ellis just before last Christmas, it was against a Workington side missing several key players – but this time round the Finches were at full strength.
In an absorbing encounter, both sides gave everything, with the lead changing four times in the second half before the match ended in controversy, more of which later.
Workington started brightly from kick off and a successful line out was followed by an impressive phase of play which was finished off by Beth Sunderland who nipped in to score under the posts and set up an easy conversion for Stacey Carruthers.
From the restart, Lancaster launched a procession of attacks that tested the Finches backline and their resistance was broken with two tries in five minutes from Emily Mander, the second of which was converted by Eudora Aladesoun.
However, Workington regained advantage with probing attacks of their own, especially from captain Juliet Porter, Beth Sunderland, Megan Donald and Lottie Cammack, as well as tough scrummaging drives, but they were twice thwarted by Lancaster’s doughty defensive shield.
Then on 27 minutes, they conceded the ball, which was picked up by Aladesoun in her own half and just as she did at The Ellis, she delivered a blistering solo run, beating several players before casually touching down and then surprisingly missing her conversion attempt.
With Lancaster now 17-7 ahead, Workington were now playing catch-up and they managed to contain the Lionesses attack – and especially Aladesoun – with hard-hitting tackles from Meagan McAndrew, Beth Adams and Lottie Cammack before they proceeded to swamp the Lionesses half with attacks and drives that paid off on 32 minutes when Porter thrust herself over to score and set up an easy conversion for Megan Donald.
The rest of the first half was mostly dominated in the centre and so both sides finished a lively 40 minutes with Workington trailing by only 3 points.
In the second half, Workington picked up where they left off with more dominant scrummaging and Porter finishing off a quick move to score her second try, followed by Stacey Carruthers’ 2nd conversion to put the Finches 21-17 ahead.
This lead lasted all of three minutes as Lancaster’s dominance on the wings paid off when Aladesoun fed the ball to Rosie Pearman, who then ghosted her way into the corner for their fourth try and securing a bonus point. Once again, the conversion just fell short.
The advantage was now with the Lionesses as they moved up a gear in order to seal maximum points by pinning the Finches into their own half – but every red shirt was met with a thundering reply by the wall of orange and black as Adams, Cammack, McAndrew, Porter and all matched them at every turn.
Having soaked up this onslaught, Workington produced a delicious payback by regaining the lead on 67 minutes when another series of drives ended with Cammack finding Porter, who bulldozed her way away for a hat-trick – her second in succession and third of the season. But for the first time, the Finches missed their conversion attempt.
With time slowly ticking by, Lancaster were becoming anxious but on 72 minutes another well-crafted attack left Workington floundering and scrum-half Hannah Alarakia-Charles darted in for another unconverted try, but crucially snatching back the lead by a point.
Now Workington launched one final assault in the Lionesses’ own half with more excellent scrummaging and driving that got them within fingertips of the tryline.
But then the referee suddenly blew for full time – there was a brief moment of silence before Lancaster realised they’d just edged victory.
Bizarrely, the referee blew four minutes early and had also decreed that Workington hadn’t released the ball in time – much to the anger of Finches players, coach and the small, but ever vocal travelling support.
This injustice will be remembered for a very, very long time indeed and Workington can and will feel very hard done by – especially as it was yet another brilliant all-round performance.
Workington remain top of RFU League 2 North, but only two points clear of Lancaster who now have two games in hand – both at home – against fellow title chasers Skipton next Sunday and then bottom side Yarnbury the following week.
The Finches will hope that Skipton can do them a favour before they travel to North Yorkshire on April 27.
But before all that, Workington will recover from thus setback in time for the visit of Harpenden at The Ellis this Saturday for the RFU Community Plate Semi-Final, with a big crowd expected to provide the Finches a big roar of support.
