A MUCH-CHANGED Hawcoat Park side fell to a 26-5 defeat at unbeaten league leaders Cockermouth in Cumbria Division One last Saturday, but can still have some pride in their performance.

Just 14 players made the journey north for the Maroon and Whites and from the start it was clear why Cockermouth top the league, as they were a well-drilled, young, big and mobile side who ran strongly.

That said, Hawcoat’s players showed a real determination to match them in all aspects, with their defence strong across the pack and their forwards taking it in hand.

A game plan of trying to go through phases up front and spread the ball through hands in the backs in an attempt to minimise line-outs and scrums was hatched and the early exchanges were even.

Fifteen minutes in, it was Cockermouth who scored first but their try came from a Park attack, as the ball went to ground and their back row quickly snapped up the ball and went on a 60 metre run that was only stopped by a great tackle from Jack Lord.

However, from the resulting pressure, the Cockermouth winger took a quick tap from a penalty to force his way over for a converted try.

The second try came after 30 minutes when the hosts pinned Hawcoat in their own 22, which led to a dominant Cockermouth scrum creating a pushover score near the posts.

Right on the half-time whistle, Cockermouth stretched their lead from a messy line-out from the visitors, as a forward drive close to the line proved impossible to stop. The try was again converted to make the score 21-0 at half-time.

Early in the second half, Cockermouth scored their bonus point try when an initial burst from inside their own half, good support play and off-loading in the tackle allowed their strong running centre to score out wide.

At this point there was a real fear from the hard core Maroon and White followers that the scoreboard would really tick round for the remainder of the game, but the exact opposite occurred as Park dominated territorially.

The visitors applied some real pressure, going close to scoring on regular occasions and just when it looked as though all their efforts was not going to create a score, they managed a well deserved consolation try and what a good one it was.

After going through at least 20 phases of ball retention, props Andy Kent and John Donnan made the last drives before the ball was worked blind for outstanding No.8 Alfie White to crash through three would-be tacklers to touch down in the corner.