Workington Zebras aiming to upset unbeaten Vale of Lune
Last updated 11:40, Friday, 07 November 2008
Workington Zebras face their biggest test to date tomorrow when they tackle unbeaten North Lancs Cumbria League leaders Vale of Lune.
The Lancaster side has swept all before it so far and last Saturday hammered Upper Eden 57-0.
Team manager Kevin O’Neil said: “Their record speaks for itself and by all accounts they are a very good side – big, strong forwards and sharp mobile backs.
“But so do we and we are going there cock-a-hoop after an excellent display last Saturday when we beat Keswick 44-19 in what I regarded as the best performance of the season.
“Everything just seemed to click into place – especially up front where our forwards looked absolutely devastating.
“We have heard Vale have a big, strong pack so it’s going to be a good battle up-front to size the initiative.”
Workington are unchanged in the forwards but have brought Scott Campbell off the wing to play at full-back with teenager Johnny Howarth switching to the bench. Bede O’Connor comes in on the wing.
“It’s just really to give us a bit more experience against the top team. Johnny is one for the future. Actually his dad Jason is in the pack,” said O’Neil.
Keswick coach Alan Gray felt Workington were the best team they had played this season, and was highly complimentary of their forwards.
“I was pleased at how we stuck at it. We actually scored three very good tries but never seemed as though they were getting us back into the game because every time we scored one, Zebras went down straight away and scored one at the other end,” said Gray.
It doesn’t get any easier for newly-promoted Keswick for they travel to Kirkby Lonsdale tomorrow – and they are level with Workington on points and have a game in hand.
Kirkby Lonsdale showed their ability last week when they won 22-20 at Wigton to end a run of three straight wins for the Lowmoor Road side.
“We did a lot better in the second-half but the damage had been done,” said Wigton coach Malcolm, Brown. “They were very adept at counter-attack and scored four tries like that in the first-half to build-up a handy lead.”
The Lowmoor Road side will be selecting from 21 with Mark Deans, who had 20 minutes as a replacement last week, retaining his place in the squad.
Robert Marrs, who has played only one game so far after winning the Player of the Year award last season, is back too after recovering from an inkle injury.
Andy Brown, who has been the stand-out forward this season, also returns after being unavailable last week through work commitments.
Mark Thompson returns to the squad with David Warwick unable to travel and named in the Wanderers line-up for the Cumbria League game at home to Creighton.
The other Cumbrian side in North Two east, Aspatria were on the wrong end of a six try mauling when they went down 36-11 at home to Gateshead.
The visitors had only registered one League win from six League games so this was a contest the Cumbrians had clearly targeted.
It was a good one for chairman of rugby Mark Richardson to miss as he was on holiday, but he heard nothing but negative reports on his return.
“We all sat down for chat on Tuesday – the players, coaches and myself and talked about what had gone wrong and why. It appears there might have been a few going out there with the wrong attitude, some perhaps who don’t hurt enough when they get beat.
“I can only say that the response was very good because they trained really well and I hope they can put that into their performance on Saturday at Old Crossleyans,” said Richardson.
The Black Reds will have a few problems, though, as Mark Cottam, Mark Bouch, Lee Askew, Dan Rayson and Andrew Miller will all miss-out through injury while Lee Tinnion has work commitments.
The six matches in the Cumbria League are: Millom v Moresby; Aspatria Eagles v St. Benedict’s; Whitehaven v Cockermouth; Wigton Wanderers v Creighton; Workington Steelers v Egremont; Gosforth Greengarth v Netherhall.
