Hawcoat Park 22 Kirkby Lonsdale 14

What was a Cumbria Cup fixture, was a fast and entertaining encounter between two teams using the fixture as a pre season warm up, after the early re-organisation of the league structure by the RFU. The pitch and the playing conditions were ideal, just a strongish wind blowing from end to end. Kirkby played with this in the first half, but did not use it as well as the home team did in the second half. Line outs were a little rusty, but both packs were evenly matched in the set pieces. Hawcoat opened the scoring when a short pass in midfield created space for the centre to race in, and this was converted for the 7 - 0 lead. Kirkby were winning some possession and were trying to play some open rugby, and were playing in the home 22, stand off Holden slipped through for the equalising score, which he also converted. Hawcoat came straight back to score a similar score to their first, but this was not converted, so half time was 12 - 7. Kirkby, now playing into the wind had plenty of possession, but handling errors ended their opportunities. Hawcoat then kicked over a penalty to make it 15 - 7. Their scrum half received a yellow for a high tackle, but Kirkby never had the chance to make the extra man tell, due to some clever home play using up the clock. Kirkby applied some pressure, and no 8 Fogarty went over, and Holden converted to make it 15 - 14. However, Hawcoat using the wind well, took play down to the Kirkby line, and a blindside move and some near off loads gave them a crucial score, which was converted, to make the score 22 - 14. Kirkby were not done, and were moving the ball wide at any opportunity, a last ditch tap tackles prevented any more score, and the home side were victors. The home side are a large, well drilled outfit, and Kirkby's young side will have learned things from their wily opponents.