Rodney Odondi scored a hat-trick of tries as Hawcoat Park saw off a local rival for the second week running by dispatching Millom 44-10 in what was their first home game of the new Cumbria Division One season last Saturday.

The teams had not met in a competitive match for a few years but have always enjoyed a good relationship, meaning a keenly-contested game was always in the offing.

Defences were on top for the first ten minutes, but following good work by Hawcoat’s hardworking front row of club captain Col Niven, Scott Dobbie and Andy Kent, fly-half George Smith took the opportunity to boot over a penalty from 30 metres to open the scoring.

However, it was Millom who scored the first try to take the lead when their centre nipped in to intercept and although Jack Lord did well to get back to make a last -ditch tackle the ball was recycled and the try was scored out wide.

The Maroon and Whites then hit back when impressive young full back Benji Platt came in to the line at pace. before slipping a neat inside pass to winger Odondi, who ran strongly to touch down near the posts for Smith to convert.

Smith was controlling play and moving the ball well in ideal weather conditions and on a perfect pitch.

First he took the opportunity to boot over a rare drop goal and then on the last play before half time moved the ball to Jason Milby, who passed to Odondi and he beat his man to once again finish well to extend the lead to 18-5 at half-time.

Hawcoat went on to dominate the second half and played some good running rugby, with the back row of Alfie White, Mike Lightfoot and Callum Ramsay outstanding, which allowed Smith to pull the strings and Platt to show off his pace to come into the line and cause problems for the Millom defence.

Four further tries followed at regular intervals, all scored by the three quarters, firstly by the returning Matt Burrows, before Smith ran in.

Odondi then completed an impressive hat-trick before centre Chris Burns crossed for the hosts’ sixth score of the afternoon. Smith converted three of the tries to finish with a personal tally of 19 points.

Before the end with the final play Millom scored a deserved consolation, when their young fly-half beat a couple of tired-looking tackles to score a good unconverted try.