U15’s win Cumbria Cup
On Sunday our Under 15's made the 140 mile round trip to Silloth to play in the Cumbria Cup Under 15 Final against Wigton. We arrived in cars to a bit of a carnival atmosphere with the Under 17's final already underway with a decent crowd in attendance. Our opponents Wigton arrived having made the 8 mile journey on their team bus along with a big group of supporters. Coached by former New Zealand Maori rugby league star Tane Manihera, and Cumbria and Wigton stalwart John Armstrong we knew we were going to be up against a strong side who had clearly arrived at Silloth with a lot of confidence.
With excellent conditions under foot on a superb pitch we received the kick off and immediately got into our stride playing good free flowing rugby defended well by Wigton. Strong running from No 8 Theo Stephenson, and centre Jonathan Broadbent had Wigton back-pedalling a bit and they realised they were in for an interesting afternoon. Continued pressure and good rucking from our forward pack resulted in a try for skipper and centre Zack Dodds converted by fly half Charlie Dinneen. We then lost influential prop Will Armer to a knee injury but our forward pack, lead by man of the match and open side flanker Taylor Leach stepped up another gear, and with props Jamie "Kitshoff" Dixon and Will Lancaster carrying and rucking well supported by flanker Jameson Lawson we started to gain the upper hand. It was therefore a bit against the run of play that Wigton responded with an un-converted try to leave the score 7-5. We then lost our play maker fly half to a knock to the head just before half time but whilst he was receiving a thorough head injury assessment the squad system came to the fore with Jasper Cummins coming on to the wing, and Liam Barr moving seamlessly to full back. This left the stage set for Tommy Scanlan to move to fly half; take us up field and then slotting a penalty to leave the score at 10-5 at half time.
We knew the next 5-10 minutes were going to prove crucial so we introduced fresh legs from the bench with Dylan Suart coming on at flanker; Seth Webster at hooker; and Charlie Rendall on the wing. The players they replaced were Ollie Harvey, Nathan "Gally" Galbraith, and James Barnes who had all put a big shift in during the first half especially second rows Ollie and Gally. After a successful HIA Charlie Dinneen returned at fly half and along with Robbie Aiken at scrum half started to pull the strings behind an increasingly dominant pack and play rugby predominantly in Wigton's half. An early scare though against the run of play saw Wigton break down the wing, set up a ruck on inside our 22 only for Tommy Scanlan; back at full back, to make a try saving tackle under the posts to keep the lead intact. We never looked back from there and with our pack regularly turning over ball in the tackle we started to turn the screw resulting in a well worked un-converted try down the left wing for Charlie Rendall following a sublime pass from Jonathan Broadbent to put us 15-5 up.
Continued pressure in defence saw a penalty awarded and kicked by us to go 18-5 up and with 10 minutes to go both Charlie Dinneen and Tommy Scanlan kicked us deep into Wigton territory resulting in an attacking lineout on their 5 metre line. Our forwards have practised lineouts diligently for months and the work paid off with a text book catch and drive resulting in our hard working hooker / flanker Lewis Sedgwick driving over for a well deserved final try to take the victory 23-5. Watching the players celebrate with the trophy was tremendous as was getting plaudits from the Wigton coaches and the referee about our skill levels and spirit in which we played the game.
Winning trophies is excellent but the real test of a rugby team comes when your backs are against the wall. At the start of the season we had a squad of 14 players with no firm coaching or management structure. Up stepped a new team manager; the indomitable Emma Armer, and a coaching team of Jeff Aiken, Des Scanlan, Graeme Dodds, and Richard Lancaster. Since then 6 players have joined or returned to play, including 3 young men who have played little or no rugby before; they were all welcomed with open arms. A combination of hard working players, good coaching, strong management, and supportive parents has resulted in twice weekly training sessions where having less than 15-18 players has been a rarity. Success on the field has been well documented with excellent individual and team performances, but more importantly has come the enjoyment and fulfilment of playing rugby as a team. There is still plenty of work to do this season but we are already looking forward to next season and more competitive rugby. If you know of any 15 or 16 year olds who would like to benefit from this please ask them to call Richard Lancaster on 07508 036583.
