Cumbria's tough test
Last updated 08:48, Friday, 09 May 2008
CUMBRIA face another tough test tomorrow at Stourbridge when they take on North Midlands in the County Shield Championship.
After a 38-0 defeat at home to Northumberland last week it’s looking increasingly likely that Cumbria will be facing a relegation shoot-out with Durham next week-end.
For while Cumbria were losing at Kendal, the Durham side went down 41-16 at Stourbridge to the North Midlands.
Cumbria make the same trip to Stourbridge and are forced into changes because of injuries and unavailabilities. Half-back pair of James Gough (knee) and Paul Newton (ankle) were forced to retire last week while both prop Andrew Irving and hooker Alan Holmes are unavailable.
Carlisle’s Joe Graham will come in at hooker while Workington prop Ben Lanighan will get his first start in the front-row.
Team manager Mark Richardson said: “There were some positives from the Northumberland defeat and one of them was the performance of Ben when he came on as a replacement.
“He took the ball up well and looked very strong. It will be tougher from the start against an experienced side but he’s up for the challenge.
“We haven’t decided what to do in the backs but it’s likely that South African Heinrich Jonker, who was another plus with his performance in the centre, will play scrum-half and Chris Park will move to fly-half.
“Steffan Helies was on the bench last week and it’s likely that he will start at full-back.”
Of Northumberland, Richardson said: “They were very impressive, especially when they got the ball wide.
“We stuck at it and showed a lot of spirit but weren’t helped by a few injuries.”
Northumberland were favourites for the game on the strength of the superior level from which their players were drawn and they justified that assessment.
The match was a triumph for the Smailes family, with wingman Hamish justifying his trip north from Launceston with four tries while brother Jack, the Tynedale full-back, scored the other two.
Tynedale fly-half Gavin Beasley, who is a west Cumbrian who opted to play for Northumberland while playing and studying in the north east, landed four conversions.
“The extra intensity we displayed and the extra pace we had wide out were the difference,” said coach Tommy Borthwick who had previously led Tynedale to promotion and is a former Aspatria and Cumbria coach.
“The forwards laid the foundations and we scored early on, which was important at Mint Bridge. We scored three tries playing into a breeze in the first-half and led 19-0 at half-time.
“Cumbria made some changes and came more into the game after the interval, but we came back and scored three tries in the last 20 minutes.”
The Cumbria Plate final was played at Egremont on Wednesday and was won by Millom, beating Netherhall 13-11.
The final of the Cumbria Shield between Silloth and Penrith finished all square at 15-15 after extra-time. But Silloth were declared the winners, scoring three tries to their opponent’s two.
It was 15-10 to Penrith Vagabonds four minutes from the end when a good move by Silloth saw Paul Blake score in the corner. Phil Scott’s conversion attempt off the touchline into the wind struck the post. Stephen Pape and Darren Irwin had scored the earlier tries for Silloth who opted to play social rugby this season, but may consider a return to the Cumbria League.
Penrith had trailed 10-3 at the break after a penalty from John Forester had got them onto the scoreboard.
The game looked to have been turned by Simon Veitch who came off the bench into stand off and directed the play with some vision and was able to get his side moving forward.
Silloth seemed to go into their shell thinking the game was won and Penrith mounted an assault on their line, after going close on a number of occasions big powerful South African second row forward Marius Urasmus forced his way over.
With the game entering its final throes a thunderous run by Billy Barton resulted in a try under the posts and the conversion from Forester saw Penrith go ahead 15-10 – until Blake snatched the equaliser in the 76th minute.
