Hawcoat Park got back to winning ways after a dominant second half performance against Workington, as they recorded an emphatic 51-13 victory in Cumbria Division One last Saturday.

The eventual final score was one that did not do justice to the efforts shown by the Workington Zebras who, particularly in the first half, played their part in making this an enjoyable competitive contest.

With the half-time score 17-13 it was only after the break, with Workington lacking replacement options, that Hawcoat could open up play against a tiring side and score some good tries.

It was the big Zebras pack who started the best, going through phases well and supplemented by a string of penalties they were the ones who applied all the early pressure. That told when their fly-half opened the scoring with a 40-metre goal.

The hosts started to get a foothold in the game and hit back when winger Rodney Odondi was prevented from scoring in the corner by a desperate covering tackle that the ref judged to be too high and a penalty try was awarded.

Workington then regained the lead when their fly-half spotted space behind a flat defensive line and accurately kicked through for their centre to gather the ball and touch down with the conversion was added from wide out.

Park scrum-half Will Coles and the Zebras' fly-half exchanged penalty goals before the Maroon and White were awarded a second penalty try as half-time approached.

After winning a scrum against the head, outstanding back row Callum Ramsay and skipper for the day Alfie White led a drive for the Workington line. When illegally prevented, the referee ran under the posts.

The second half was a different story as Hawcoat started to use interchanges against a game but fatigued Zebras on a perfect pitch, which meant they could put on an impressive handling and running display.

The game throughout was a little disjointed with six yellow cards awarded. By his own admission in the bar, the ref conceded ‘it was not a six yellow card game’ the way it was played, but that he could only interpret each individual situation under RFU rules.

Tries came at regular intervals for Park through Adam Grainger, Keenan Cotton, John Donnan, Mike Lightfoot, Elliott McDermott and Coles.

The fourth, bonus point earning, try was the best, as accurate long passes from Coles then McDermott allowed centre Lewis Sayle to pass to elusive running full back Benji Platt coming into the line to pass out to young winger Cotton to show good gas to finish in the corner.