FiNCHES RIDE THE STORM AS THEY RESUME VICTORY MARCH

Following their narrow defeat against Keswick last week, Workington Zebra Finches rediscovered the taste of victory with a 20 - 0 success over Darlington at The Ellis.

In fairness, the result should read "Workington & Darlington 20 Storm Isha 0" because both teams defied the strong, treacherous winds and freezing rain and indeed, Darlington deserve immense credit for turning up after a testing 2 hour journey from County Durham (for the record, they returned home safely).

Workington dominated from kick off, despite playing face on in the blustery conditions & they were able to make regular inroads into Darlington territory before Megan Donald chased down a loose ball before snaffling it & racing over for an unconverted try.

Darlington were clearly jolted by this & it showed from the restart as they pinned the Finches into their own half for an extended period of domination as they made short but effective runs & creative, tight passing while testing their opponents' defensive rearguard.

But whenever they were about to make the final move, dogged Finches tackling - especially by Codey Johnson, Beth Adams & captain Charlotte Cammack - thwarted them at every turn.

Having dug deep to counter Darlington's attacks, Workington gradually regained the advantage & on 34 minutes, a well drilled scrummaged saw the ball offloaded to Beth Adams, who wasted no time in touching down to double the Finches' lead as the try went unconverted again.

By this time, Workington were on the up & a minute from half time, Donald produced a virtual replica of her first try as she chased down the ball before collecting & finishing off with her 9th try of the season.

The referee added 8 minutes of stoppage time & although Darlington had another period of camping in Finches territory they still couldn't find a way through and remained pointless when the referee eventually blew for half time.

With conditions getting worse, there were fears of the match being abandoned but the second half duly began & with the wind behind them, Workington were determined to increase their lead as well as grab a bonus point with a 4th try.

They did precisely that on 52 minutes when Donald turned provider as she offloaded to Nicole Stewart, who left her challengers flailing in the wind as she raced under to posts to grab a try for herself.

However, her conversion was disallowed because of the delay in setting up the kick - a very harsh decision considering the dreadful conditions by this point.

Darlington persevered & pressed hard but eventually the match became bogged down into midfield before the referee finally decided to end proceedings after an hour as both wind & rain became even harder.

In accordance with RFU guidelines, as 60 minutes had elapsed the result stands; thus Workington not only avenged their defeat at Darlington last October, but also move up to only 2 points behind unbeaten leaders Keswick Falcons in RFU League North 2, but having played one game more.

Once again, Darlington deserve special commendation for turning up & making a game of it - in normal conditions the result might have been very close.

Workington's attention now turns to cup action for the next fortnight - on 4th February they travel to Durham City as they aim to maintain the RFU Community Plate.

But before that, they host Carlisle at The Ellis next Sunday in the semi-final of the new Cumbria Women's Cup, so hopefully the weather will be kinder & than a good crowd will be in attendance.

By John Hastings @ The ESG

Photo: Susan Bowman