Last updated at 16:49, Thursday, 29 November 2012

MILLOM and Hawcoat Park produced a thrilling encounter between South Cumbria’s two under-14s sides at Wilson Park.

Led by the front-row combination of Tom Wright, Henry Atwell and Joel Buchanan, the visitors kept the much bigger Millom forwards at bay in the scrum and in the loose.

Millom threw everything at Hawcoat, but great rucking on their own line from Joe Rea, Johnny Hutton and Jack Osten drove them off the ball and allowed scrum-half Austin Meadows to release the back line.

Euan James fed Harvey Jeffery, who passed out to Ewan Holt to run the length of the pitch, repelling tackle after tackle to score a great try.

It was not long before Millom got the bit between their teeth and were on the scoreboard with some superb ball work releasing the back line and putting their centre under the sticks for a converted try.

Park full-back Mason McKeever was getting more into the game with some superb individual running at the heart of the Millom team, but great tackling by the home team kept him at arms length as they led 7-5 at the break.

The second half saw Millom try everything to break the Hawcoat line, but tackling machine Jake Robertson was having none of it, before the line was eventually broken.

The score spurred the away team on, with Meadows and Rea producing great work, the latter taking the ball on and bouncing off tackler after tackler to go over under the sticks for a try converted by Declan Rodgers.

Millom again got on the front foot, scoring two tries, before Hawcoat’s Declan Rodgers turned on the class and scored a great try from his own half, converted by Hutton with only 10 minutes left.

Jordan Ashton was looking superb outside for Park, with some great jinking runs taking the ball on at every occasion, backed up by Harvey Jeffery.

The visitors were beginning to get the upper hand when Meadows once again released his backs, with centre Holt the recipient of a great pass. Again, he ran half the pitch to score under the sticks, Rodgers converting to put them 26-25 up with only minutes left.

From the kick-off, the Millom full-back spotted a gap and ran the full length to score out wide bringing a win in a high-quality match.

Hawcoat coach Jason Meadows said: “This was a great game of rugby, with both sides showing some great work in the loose and the tight.

“I am chuffed for the Hawcoat lads as they were very unlucky not to take the spoils.

“This is a team in early stages of development, but showing great skill sets to take forward.”

l The two clubs also met at under-nines and under-10s levels in a round-robin event also involving Egremont.

Hawcoat’s under-nines beat Egremont 15-10 and Millom 35-10, with the under-10s losing a hard-fought game against Millom 25-5.

Hawcoat thanked Millom for their hospitality towards all their teams.

l Hawcoat Park are holding a recruitment evening on Monday for under-nines through under-12s.

The evening will run from 6.15pm until 7.30pm.

There will be several special guests from both the worlds of rugby league and rugby union in attendance to pass on their knowledge and throw a ball around with the kids.

The event is free and everyone is welcome.

For more information, contact Jason Meadows on 01229 811856.

First published at 16:47, Thursday, 29 November 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk