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KESWICK RUGBY FIRST XV PROMOTED

KESWICK RUGBY FIRST XV PROMOTED

Allan Lambert29 Mar 2017 - 10:48
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Bonus point win guarantees promotion

Keswick Rugby 1st XV played their penultimate league game of the season last Saturday away at St Benedicts Ravens in Whitehaven, knowing that a bonus point win would guarantee promotion from the Cumbria League to the North Lancs & Cumbria League. However, despite being bottom of the league, St Benedicts had held second placed Whitehaven to a draw the previous week so would be no push-over.

On a pitch that would be classified as heavy going had it been a racecourse, Keswick soon found themselves under pressure from a determined opposition. An early penalty gave St Benedicts the lead, following which they won a scrum against the head close to the Keswick line to score in the corner. A successful conversion meant that Keswick were 10 points down in almost as many minutes. Poor handling and missed tackles in the muddy conditions meant that despite comprehensively winning the scrums, Keswick were on the back foot.

In a penalty strewn first half St Benedicts' kicking from hand proved better than Keswick's and as Keswick struggled to win line-out ball they came under further pressure. Nevertheless, quickly following up a penalty, Keswick managed an unconverted try by Carrick Wharmby to turn round 10 - 5 down at half time, needing 3 more tries in the second half, and a win, to achieve their aim of a bonus point win; it looked very unlikely.

A strongly worded half-time talk seemed to do the trick and shortly after the re-start Keswick managed a second try, by Mike Tait, converted by Andy Muir to go ahead 10 - 12. Keswick's dominance in the scrums gave them a sound platform, but missed tackles and dropped balls were not helping. Poor discipline by St Benedicts gave Keswick a penalty, kicked well to the corner and from the resulting line-out Keswick ran the ball through the backs for Mike Tait to score almost under the posts, again successfully converted by Andy Muir, 10 - 19.

With one more try needed for the bonus point, it was provided by Bruce Rigby under the posts, running back a St Benedicts kick ahead from within Keswick's own 22. It was converted once more by Andy Muir. Not content to sit back, Keswick scored again almost from the kick-off, Andy Muir touching down in the right hand corner; the conversion was missed, but Keswick were now ahead 10 - 31.

Try number 6 came through the pack's dominance in the scrum as they won a put-in against the head in St Benedicts' 22 to score an unconverted try in the corner in what was to be the final play of the game. With the win and the bonus point Keswick had the 5 points needed to win the league and guarantee promotion.

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