SEVEN UP DISPLAY ON TAP AS ZEBRAS QUENCH VICTORY THIRST

After their opening day defeat at Millom last week, Workington registered their opening Cumbria League win as they comprehensively overcame Creighton 43 - 5 at The Ellis.

Like an army of ants at a picnic, the Zebras were all over their opponents from kick off and it only took them 6 minutes to open the scoring when Bede O'Connor produced a thunderous charge down the flank before offload the ball which eventually found Jonny Howarth, who clinically scissored his way through the Creighton defence to go over for an unconverted try.

Workington continued to swamp Creighton's half - especially with Howarth, O'Connor and Marc Hunton delivering menacing surges -
and their dominance was awarded when they doubled the lead with a second unconverted try after 21 minutes as Chris Stringer polished off a well executed driving play to cruise over the whitewash.

It was not until the half hour mark that the visitors finally managed to make a serious breach into Zebras territory and their fine passing allied to well drilled movements were matched by Workington's brickwall defensive line that remained ever alert to snuffing out any potential threats.

Having weathered this pressure, Workington had the last word of the first half with their third try on the stroke of half time when another excellent driving play saw Hunton receive the ball from just inside the visitors' half and his dazzling solo run left Creighton flat footed as he breezed under the posts to set up an easy conversion for Tom Lawson.

The second half was barely 3 minutes old as the Zebras increased the lead as well as register their first Bonus Point of the season as David Wordsworth found space to race home under the posts and once again, Lawson made no mistake with his conversion.

Despite being 24 - 0 down by this time, Creighton refused to capsize and they managed to steady the ship by containing their opponents with a solid, resolute defensive cordon. However, Workington stepped up another level before delivering a sucker punch with 2 tries in 5 minutes.

A period of dogged scrummaging reaped its' reward on 58 minutes when Stringer crashed hoome for his second try of the day and Lawson made it a hat trick of conversions.

Then on 63 minutes, another driving play left Creighton flailing and Grant Reid was on hand to finish off with a well taken try followed by another conversion from Lawson to make it 38 - 0.

With nothing to lose, Creighton started to be more adventurous in their play and 12 minutes from time, their exerted pressure finally broke through Workington's hitherto steadfast rearguard to grab a consolation try, albeit unconverted.

To say that Workington were bitterly disappointed at losing the chance of a clean sheet would be an understatement - indeed, the looks on several players' faces clearly spoke more than the words in this match report.

But the Zebras had the last laugh on 71 minutes when Chris Davidson sprinted clear to score the hosts' 7th try, though Lawson was unlucky with his conversion attempt this time round.

Overall, it was a very good performance from Workington, though they will be upset of losing that consolation try towards the end and such lapses of concentration must be swiftly eliminated if the Zebras are to mount a credible tilt at silverware this season.

By John Hastings @ The ESG