Last updated at 11:25, Sunday, 01 July 2012

FOR the spectators last week, I’m sure it was an entertaining game of rugby.

We knew North Wales had points in them if we allowed them field position, which unfortunately we did.

Scoring 40 points ourselves, we were obviously happy we won the game, but we were disappointed with the way we played.

The basic match stats – completion rates, penalties conceded and the like – gave the impression we played pretty well. However, for some reason, for large parts of the game we decided to play to a game-plan myself and Holty don’t ever remember practising.

On the few occasions we actually did what we rehearsed, we scored or built pressure on the Welshmen.

With some big games coming up, we need to get back to what we know, as playing in 15-minute spells won’t get us the three points when we go against teams higher up the table. It’s something that hopefully isn’t too difficult to fix, so we’re not going to panic yet!

Tuesday night was a great night for Cumbria RL, as the nines squad went one step further than last year and lifted the winners’ shield in the finals at Headingley.

After watching the Wigan team at Craven Park a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would take a very good team to beat them.

They went through the weekly heats undefeated, which rightly made them favourites, but surprisingly a young Featherstone side spoiled the Pie Eaters’ party as they beat them in the quarters, on their way to meeting our boys in the final, where Workington’s Brett Carter scored a late try to seal a 16-10 win.

There is a lot of ignorance from quite a few supporters of Super League clubs towards Championship level clubs.

Hopefully, Tuesday’s final opened those fans’ eyes and showed them there is a lot of young talent outside the ‘Holy Grail’ of Super League – there is also some old talent, if you include Mike Backhouse and Carl Sice!

Today we travelled down to the capital in preparation for playing the London Skolars.

We only played them a few weeks ago up here, when we took the game away from them late on – surprise, surprise! They are a big side, who play on a postage-stamp pitch, so it will be tough, though from past memory, it has felt like a home game, as there are more ex-pat Barrovians in attendance than locals. Let’s hope we reproduce our home form.

The next event for Mike Whitehead’s testimonial takes place on Friday – a poker night at the Castle House, Walney.

With a £300 first prize, it’s well worth a punt. As usual, the details can be found on Mike’s testimonial Facebook page.

First published at 10:41, Saturday, 30 June 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk