Keswick earned themselves a bonus point win against Sunderland at Davidson Park, and climbed up into third position in the Regional 2 North table, swapping places with Percy Park who lost out at second placed Consett, writes Ben Challis.
Going into this game it was fourth versus fifth and a pulsating first half certainly reflected that.
Led out by Dan Craghill for the 2,000th cap for four generations of Craghills for Keswick RFC, Keswick were on the front foot from the start.
Just four minutes in, they took advantage of a penalty awarded by referee Archie Harding for Sunderland not rolling away in the ruck and elected to kick, with Ben Clark slotting the ball home for 3-0.
Five minutes later Keswick extended their lead when a barnstorming run from Peter Wightman saw the Keswick captain dive in under the posts with Clark converting for 10-0.
It was never going to be that easy and on a heavy, slippery pitch, 15 minutes into the game some good play from Sunderland set up a sublime jinking run from Ben Hutchinson who dived in and stretched out to touch down with Leon Ryan adding the conversion for 10-7.
Ten minutes later, continuous Sunderland pressure down the left wing, an excellent penalty kick from Hutchinson into touch, and then a good Sunderland line-out set up a driving maul for the visitors with Ryan grounding the ball for an unconverted try and the lead at 10-12.
It was all to play for and Craghill came close to making the Sunderland try line on the left wing but was tackled just short, and then Keswick thought they had retaken the lead when Danny Price used his pace to break free down the right wing but he was adjudged to have failed to ground his own grubber kick and Keswick went into the half time break 10-12 down.
It was anyone’s game and the second half was as exciting as the first.
For the first 10 minutes Keswick began to build up a head of steam with Jamie Wilson a constant threat, and powerful charges from Peter Weightman, Ally Hewett Smith and Matty Atkinson kept Sunderland on the back foot and pinned deep in their own 22 before Keswick worked the ball wide and George Cowen accelerated down the left wing to dive in for an unconverted try but crucially the lead at 15-12.
Ten minutes later more Keswick pressure allowed an opportunistic Glen Weightman to take advantage of a disorganised Sunderland defence to sprint forwards, dive in, extend his arm and touch down just beside the sticks and with Clark adding the conversion it was 22-12 to Keswick.
With 20 minutes left to play it was Keswick’s game to lose, but with the support of a large vocal crowd including a large contingent of attendees at the Annual Rugby Reunion, and watched on by RFU president Deborah Griffin OBE, Keswick held on, defended extremely well and pushed Sunderland back when they needed to.
With just two minutes left on the clock and with the game now won, Keswick were on the attack and a scrum set up Jamie Wilson, who zigzagged across the field of play, repeatedly evading and side stepping closing defenders to burst through and touch down under the sticks.
With Clark adding the final conversion the game ended 29-12 as the final whistle blew.
In other results Consett’s close 53-48 win over Percy Park was a bonus for Keswick, champions elect Northern FC marched on to promotion with a 21-48 away win at Morpeth, Aspatria lost out 10-54 in their Cumbrian derby with Upper Eden, West Hartlepool defeated Guisborough 43-17 and already relegated Wigton lost out 7-40 at home to Durham City. Durham have now moved well clear of the threat of relegation and the relegation play off match will be between tenth placed Guisborough and eleventh placed Aspatria.
Keswick face Kendal RUFC in the Final of the Cumbria Cup on Saturday April 4 (kick-off 3pm at Aspatria RUFC) before travelling to Upper Eden for their final game of the regular league season on Saturday April 11.Â
