Hawcoat Park resumed their campaign in Cumbria Division One with a 38-19 defeat at Cockermouth last Saturday after their hosts pulled away in the closing stages.

A strong-looking Hawcoat team knew they were in for a tough task against a Cockermouth side who lie third in the table and that proved the case in the first ten minutes, as their opponents dominated possession and repeatedly punched holes in their defence.

They broke the deadlock when a nice passing move led to their winger going over in the corner, conversion missed, before adding a second under the posts after their forwards pounded away close to the try line.

At 12-0 down, the Maroon and Whites rallied from an attacking line-out, where several backs joined in the rolling maul that led to captain George Smith grounding the ball before also converting.

However, Cockermouth then produced another spell of excellent attacking rugby, with their winger going over in the corner again before some slack defending allowed them to get through the middle and score under the posts.

It was a long way back from 24-7 down, but Park rounded off the scoring in an exciting first half as lock Jack Sutherland crashed over in the corner after a long spell of possession for the visitors.

Smith’s missed conversion left the score at 24-12 at half-time and Hawcoat put themselves right back in the picture after Cockermouth were penalised for a high tackle on Benji Platt.

From the resulting line-out, some quick thinking led to Callum Ramsay plunging over from close range, with Smith’s successful conversion from out wide reducing the gap to five points.

However, the hosts finished the stronger side and a flowing move led to them sealing the match with their fifth try of the afternoon before their tighthead crashed over from close range to increase their margin of victory further.

Hawcoat Park A are now just three points off the top of Division Four North of the North West Intermediate League after a strong second half gave them a 34-15 victory against Burnley 2nd XV.

The Maroon and Whites found themselves 10-0 down before Adam Williamson’s penalty was added to by Charlie Elmsley’s equalising converted try, with Paul Woodburn then crashing over to put them 17-10 ahead at half-time.

An unconverted Burnley try reduced the gap to two points early in the second half, but Hawcoat were able to pull clear thanks to scores from Rory Sayle, Jake Rigg and Keenan Cotton.