Cumbria Rugby Union

Match report by Mike Sanderson:

Cumbria lost out by the narrowest of margins on the road at Burton on Trent in an entertaining game that fluctuated massively. First one side looked as if they were going to run away with it then the other, both sides got themselves in a winning position in the final minutes only to throw it away and the home side eventually had a conversion to steal the game at the death and then managed to hang on grimly to claim the win.

Cumbria got off to the brightest of starts, within two minutes stand off Josh Ree had kicked them into a three point lead when the home side were penalised for a high tackle. He was then instrumental in setting up the opening try for winger Joe Beaty with a penetrating run down the left touchline and the feed-back inside.

The visitors bagged a second try when Staffordshire overthrew a line-out on half way, Joe Anderson tidied the ball up at the tail and it was quickly whipped down the Cumbrian back line where Jay Rossi drew the final defender and released full back Jamie McNaughton on the outside and he outpaced the cover to score in the corner.

Cumbria scored again after Ree chipped the rush defense on the 22, he almost won the chase for the ball but the defender who did manage to claim possession was then penalised for hanging on and Ree kicked the penalty to pull out the lead to 16 points.

To this point Cumbria had dominated and were winning the battle on the gain line in attack and defense but the game began to turn as the home side upped the intensity, They kicked a penalty to the corner and worked the catch and drive to pull back a converted try. The visitors won another kickable penalty after some strong running from Matty Houghton and pulled three points back but the home side finished the first half strongly and scored in the corner after a sustained pressure in the attacking 22. Although Cumbria led 19-14 at the break the momentum was with the opposition.

The second half started as the first had finished with the home side on the front foot, a penalty allowed them to kick deep into the Cumbrian 22 and again they turned line-out possession into a try to level the scores. They weren't long in adding a converted try to take the lead and looked as if they might run away with the game but the visitors hung on and were rewarded with a quality try to level the scores. They won line-out possession on the 22 and it was quickly spun through the three quarters hands and winger Joe Beaty made a clean break wide out and won the race to the line.

On the half hour it looked as if the Upper Eden connection might have won the game, scrum half Oli Rose had had a tidy game distributing the ball well and he now chose to make his first break of the game and got into open ground, found his team mate Oli Bennett and he got away down the right before feeding the ball back inside to Rose for a neat try, Bennett added the conversion.

All Cumbria had to do was hang on but they proceeded to give a silly penalty away, handling in the set scum and that invited the home side to kick the penalty to their line. Staffordshire did just that and again worked the attacking line-out well to claim the try. They needed the conversion to level the scores but it slid wide.

The home side took the restart and tried to run the ball back out of their 22, Archie Rattray tackled the runner on the 22 and he was then penalised for hanging on and Bennett kicked the penalty to extend the lead to five points. Again all Cumbria had to do was hang on. They then had a clearance kick half charged down which gifted good attacking ball to the home side and they made the best of it scoring a sixth try leveling the tie, this time they needed the conversion for the lead and this time the kick was good.

Cumbria did have a final chance and looked as if they might have won a penalty at the set scrum head on to the posts but it wasn't to be, Staffordshire held on for a dramatic win.

A narrow 38-36 loss but picking up 2 bonus points.

Photos courtesy of Robin Ree