Furness 62 v St Benedicts Ravens 5

FURNESS doubled their Cumbria League tally for the season with a bonus-point win against plucky St Benedicts.

The visitors made the home team work for every try on a sunny day at the Strawberry Grounds.

It was they who had the first opportunity to put points on the board as they kept Furness pinned in their own half following the kick-off.

An infringement at the breakdown yielded a relatively makeable kick at goal, however St Benedicts opted to go for the corner for an attacking line out.

Unfortunately for them, the ball was overthrown to Joe Mallinson and the Blues cleared their lines.

Martin Ward led the way, making good yards with each touch and well supported by James Tyson and Paul Dean.

With the action now in the visitors 22, it was a ball taken against the head that allowed Mallinson to cross under the posts for a try converted by Steve Perry.

Furness stretched their lead to 12 as Rhys Studt returned a loose kick 50 metres for a fine solo try.

The game then descended into an exchange of aimless kicks, with no real action and most in the visitors half.

The pressure finally told as Perry crossed the whitewash under the sticks for an unconverted try and a 17-0 lead.

St Benedicts would not lie down, and showed good enterprise with a quickly-taken short kick-off they were able to regather.

The home side were taken by surprise and, following a period of pressure in the Furness 22, the visitors deservedly got on the scoreboard with an unconverted try.

There was just time before the break for one more score for the home side, as strong-running new recruit Ryan Cunningham went in. Perry's conversion made it 24-5.

Furness began the second half in the ascendency and were soon on the board as Perry scored his second try on the back of a fine diagonal run.

Cunningham soon had his name on the scoresheet again too, and Furness quickly stretched their tally to 36.

Rob Prescott, pulling on the blue and white shirt for the first time in many a year, helped give Furness a solid foundation in the set-piece, and he made way for Dan Scott, who displayed an appetite to take the ball into contact at every opportunity as the visitors were pinned in their own half.

Rhys Humphreys was the next to benefit from this pressure as he forced his way over for his first Furness points.

The Blues were playing with more confidence, Dillan Taputu leading from the front and Alex Brown injecting some pace into the backline from full-back.

Studt had his name on the scoresheet again, and Ward claimed his reward for a fine performance with a try of his own for 55-7 with five minutes to go.

St Benedicts did not give up and made one final foray into the Furness 22 in search of points.

Once again though, they overthrew a lineout straight to Mallinson, who promptly switched on the afterburners to gallop 80 metre for the final try in the clubhouse corner.

Those grumbling on the touchline about not going under the posts were reduced to stunned silence as he calmly converted his own try to bring a close to proceedings.

In a game sympathetically refereed by Ciaran Trainor, Furness continued to show improvement, but another blank weekend on Saturday cannot help coach Taputu as he tries to inject consistency and structure into the play.