It may have been a chilly Sunday afternoon, but the Finches were well and truly on fire straight from kick off and it only took them 4 minutes to break the deadlock as Vale Of Lune were carved open by clinical passing which ended with winger Lisa Jones effortlessly galloping away for a well deserved try under the posts, which Kirby Neesham wasted no time in converting.
The lead was increased three minutes later when Jones and Fiona McKay combined to send Amy Brennan on her way to coast through for an unconverted and it got even better on 13 minutes when Brennan fed the ball to Jones who burst through into the corner for her 2nd try, which again went unconverted.
By this time, Workington were engineering a tight grip on the match, with Jones and Brennan always on the lookout for further scoring opportunities, Fiona McKay, Leonie Haile and Charlotte Bowman providing security and efficiency at all times and captain Sarah Harrington calling the shots in her own unflappable manner.
Twenty minutes had just elapsed when Nikita Wilson got on the end of Jacqueline Ford's precision pass and left her opponents flailing as she broke away to get in on the try scoring feast. Neesham converted this time round and did so again five minutes later after Jones scythed through the visitors' ranks once again before offloading to Brennan who crashed over for her 2nd try.
Lesser teams would have surrendered - but the white flag was not an option for Vale of Lune and to their credit, they finally made extensive inroads into Workington territory and on three separate occasions came very close to opening their scoring account, but they were thwarted by resolute and unflinching defensive work.
Having rode the storm, the FInches ending the first half as they began with another try as Charlotte Hodgson produced nifty footwork on her way to touching down for a try once more converted by Neesham to make it 38 - 0 at the break.
The second half began with Workington eager to continue the stampede and they did just than on 50 minutes with the rare occurence of a "joint try" when from a high kick, Bowman and replacement Lauren Wilkinson both crashed down together over the whitewash with hands on the ball at the very same time. Neesham was unlucky to see her conversion attempt fall short.
With the match now beyond their reach, Vale of Lune were now playing for pride and once again began to make strides into Workington's 22 with their patience finally rewarded with an unconverted try on 55 minutes.
For the next 20 minutes, the game suddenly became pretty much even in terms of possession and scrummaging, with both sides going close to scoring but held back by each other's defensive shield,
But it was the visitors who had the last word with 2 unconverted tries in the last 5 minutes to make the final score somewhat respectable, if not much else.
Workington can take enormous pride in this victory and with their new found confidence and reinforced self belief, they can step up a gear to make life difficult for other teams during the rest of the season.
By John Hastings @ The ESG