West Cumbria Colts came up against an impressive Darlington team on 3rd October 2021. Despite Darlington’s victory on the score board, there were signs of improvement from the first two matches for this newly formed West Cumbria team.

Darlington had both possession and field position early in the match. Despite this, West Cumbria were resilient in defence and it took a good 10-15mins before Darlington scored their first try.

In previous weeks the West Cumbria side were finding the set pieces tough. Today saw the team winning their own lineout ball. They were also dominant in the scrum for the majority of the game. The next step is for the team will be to do more with the possession they have.
There was some strong running in the game from James Stanaway, Harvey Smith and Charlie Bell, which gave the team opportunities. Supporting the ball started off similar to the Billingham game, however after 10mins the lads switched onto this and there was a good contest for possession from both sides at the breakdown.

Darlington were impressive on the break and finishing off their opportunities. Their other try in the first half came from identifying space in the backfield and a kick and chase into the space. This led to a penalty try due to an infringement of obstructing the oncoming chasing Darlington player.

Darlington looked to have scored a third try when their scrum half dived for the line, only for Fly Half Jak Lee to hold him up over the line.

The second half saw a few more opportunities for the West Cumbria side, but unfortunately the final pass just didn’t come to hand.

Darlington played really well on the counter and their 3 trys in this half came from good counter attacking play that either resulted in the try or enabled enough pressure to eventually go over the line.

Despite the final score the West Cumbria side are showing signs of improvement. There still plenty of work to do, but with the numbers increasing at training the team is on the right track.