Phil Hayward's late try earned Furness their first win of the season as they saw off Egremont 25-24 in a thriller at the Strawberry Grounds in Cumbria Division One last Saturday.

After an encouraging performance against Wigton last time out, it was with a reasonable degree of confidence that Furness took to the field as they looked to get off the mark after a couple of defeats.

A much-changed Furness line-up met a very focused Egremont side who soon had five points on the board from an early unconverted try.

Not to be outdone, Furness soon responded with a try of their own; an excellent score out wide from winger Alex Brown. Fly-half Adam Jackson slotted a difficult conversion to put the hosts two points in front.

There then followed a 15-minute spell when both sides were jockeying for position and looking equally as threatening with the ball in hand.

The impasse was broken when, following good work by the Egremont seven and ten, and some lacklustre Furness tackling, the visitors got over for their second try, with the conversion putting them 12-7 in front.

A turnover by Furness saw their backline, with Hayward to the fore, combine to put Jackson in under the sticks, with the easy conversion meaning the lead changed hands again.

Whilst sitting back to reflect on just how good their try was, as Furness have a habit of doing, Egremont got on with the game and, following some indecision, went over for their third try of the half.

This seemed to galvanise the home side into action and following a Jamie Knight turnover and a subsequent penalty against Egremont, Jackson put over a well-struck penalty to reduce to gap to 19-17 at half-time.

Furness started the second half well and were very unlucky to have what appeared to be a perfectly good try disallowed for a forward pass.

The home side were by now on top, but a loose pass from their own scrum put allowed Egremont back onto the scoreboard with five easy points.

Despite having a player yellow carded for an offence that several Egremont players had committed but been allowed to remain on the field of play, Furness continued to take the game to the visitors.

They got some reward when a successful penalty by Jackson narrowed the deficit to four points with ten minutes remaining.

Furness continued to press, all the time looking for the winning try, but too often poor decision making and execution let them down.

Just when it looked as though the game was lost, however, they managed to get the ball all the way along the backline into the hands of Hayward who dived over in the far corner for the winning points.

On balance, it was a deserved victory against a decent Egremont side and one which they hope will kickstart their season