St Benedict's stayed on course for a remarkable treble as they beat Aspatria 17-16 in a double-header at Mirehouse.

Already North Lancs Cumbria League champions, Benny’s are now into the final of the Cumbria Cup and will play either Whitehaven or Silloth.

A three-point deduction from Aspatria’s league total meant that they had to win this clash at Newlands to earn a place in the league play-off and give themselves a shot at promotion.

The deduction came after Aspatria were guilty of a technical offence in the game against Bolton who, ironically, will now take their place in the play-off clash.

Aspatria nosed in front on the fourth minute and held the lead until the 71st, but ultimately could not close the game out against a powerful St Benedicts side who are the league’s stand-out team and worthy champions.

Aspatria’s immense effort to overturn the form book started with a long range penalty from Jack Clegg, after the referee penalised the home side for some poor disciple at the ruck area; something that would become part of the established pattern of the game.

In the early stages of the contest the set-piece action was even but with ball in hand it was Aspatria who looked the more likely to add to the lead. Several promising attacks were repulsed by an uncompromising defence in which Sean Walker was usually the lead tackler. Aspatria did add to their lead on 16 minutes when a Clegg penalty made it 0-6.

This was a good period for Aspatria and they must have sensed a win was on the cards, as discipline in the home ranks began to fall apart under the steady stream of penalties awarded against them. To this point there had been plenty of aggression on show but little sign of quality.

Spectators were made to wait until the 24th minute for a move to threaten the try line and much to the relief of the home crowd it was Saints who roared back into contention.

A quickly taken tap penalty caught Aspatria napping and in their efforts to diffuse the situation they were lucky not to have conceded a yellow card. The attack was only temporarily halted as Saints moved the ball from right to left with Aspatria only stopping the move inches from the line. Aspatria’s five metre scrum immediately came under pressure and the ball was lost.

The pressure continued and Aspatria went down to 14 men with Mark Beverley being sin binned. Saints could have taken an easy three points in front of the sticks but again opted for the scrum. Aspatria held them out and a careless knock on by Saints let them off the hook.

The game was error strewn with both sides struggling to mount a sustained attack. On 34 minutes, Saints were back in the Aspatria 22 with a penalty in front of the sticks. This time there was no debate as stand-off, Dan Rayson got his team off the mark with a successful kick.

Aspatria’s best was saved until the last few minutes of the first half. 

Clegg, with a chip over the defence unleashed the Aspatria back division and they had clear space in front of them. Andrew Miller seemed to be taking the ball into a try scoring position when the move was halted for a forward pass.

In the same incident, Saints back rower Scott Wood was scrambling back into a defensive position when he suffered a bad leg injury that will end his dream of playing for Saints in the weekend’s Intermediate Cup Final at Twickenham. Play was halted for 20 plus minutes whilst Wood received medical attention.

With Wood off the field further anguish followed for Saints in the remaining few minutes. The first setback came when Aspatria’s rush defence created a turnover of possession in their half. Centre Kris Borthwick was alert to the opportunity and wrong footed the Saints defence to put fullback Ken Bowes in space down the right touchline. Bowes had the gas to go a full 60 metres to the corner with Clegg adding a touchline conversion.

The drama was not over. From the restart the ball was kicked down field into the waiting arms of home fullback Mike Hawley. He returned the favour and chased his own kick downfield where he tackled the catcher far too enthusiastically for the ref’s liking and received a yellow card.

It looked like Aspatria’s day and on 46 minutes they had even more reason to believe this as prop Jamie Jardine was yellow carded for a high tackle, reducing the home side to 13 men.

Saints were constantly at odds with the referee with arguments breaking out at regular intervals. The home side were making few inroads into the Aspatria half and yet the belief that they could turn the game around never disappeared.

They left it late to engineer the fight back as there were barely 15 minutes left on the clock when they finally changed up a gear and gradually imposed a territorial dominance on Aspatria.

The crucial score came on 67 minutes. The penalty count was beginning to even out and Saints used theirs to great effect, with two well mounted catch and drive moves around the Aspatria five metre line.

The first was well defended but the second proved impossible to stop as a mass of home forwards collapsed over the line with Kristian Wood claiming the touchdown. Rayson’s conversion was good and they were now within a converted try of Aspatria.

The winning score quickly followed. Aspatria’s composure in possession was breaking down and on 71 minutes they failed to clear a bouncing ball. The ball could have gone anywhere but it sought out the arms of the waiting Saints and a simple score resulted for Gavin Maudling. 

Rayson’s conversion was a formality to win the game.