Cumbria crashed to a 48-14 defeat to a strong Northumberland side in their second game of the Bill Beaumont County Championship.
It had followed a fine start by the Cumbrians who were looking to build on a promising first outing against Durham last week.
The opening score came inside the first minute following a brilliant move involving the Cumbria backs line.
Peter Weightman (Keswick RFC) broke through multiple tackles before offloading to Flynn Maniera (Wigton RFC), who then beat several defenders and sent winger Dan Shorrock (Kendal RFC) in for the try.
The move covered well over half the pitch. A few minutes later Maniera added a penalty, and at 8-0 it had given Cumbria a great start.
The game was evenly contested for the next 12 minutes before Northumberland fought back with the first of two from Thompson (Berwick RFC).
It helped the visitors into a 19-8 lead at half time, although Cumbria had narrowly missed the opportunity to bring the score closer just before the break.
The hosts managed to carry that momentum over after half-time with two penalties in the first three minutes, both kicked by Ryan Scott (Aspatria RFC) who had replaced Manihera.
But when Northumberland kicked a penalty on five minutes they took control and ran in four further tries, two by winger Matthew Hayes (Medicals RFC). Conversions for Northumberland were mostly kicked by George Chapman (Percy Park RFC) as they ran out clear winners.
It was a memorable day for two Cumbrian players who reached their milestone achievement of playing 25-plus games for Cumbria.
Arran Sullivan (Aspatria RFC) reached his 25th game and Tom Graham his 28th both showing an outstanding commitment to Cumbria County rugby.
They have made up a strong front row pairing for a number of years.
Alex Briggs (Kirby Lonsdale) and Ben O’Halloran both received their Cumbria caps for five appearances for the county while there were debuts this week from Shane Cusack (Aspatria RFC), Patrick Wolstenholme (Kendal RFC), Lewis Davis (Keswick RFC), Ben Lawson (Kirby Lonsdale RFC), Jack Tunnicliffe (Penrith) and Jake Stewart (Kirby Lonsdale).
Hear Dan Bowman’s views below:
