The score doesn’t really reflect the game which was within 3 points with 8 minutes to go when Park finally ran out of steam.
The game started with Park retaining possession for a dozen phases before cam young went over in the corner to open the score. 0 5 Park. Keswick bounced back and made good ground every time their back row got on the ball .To be fair we had a pack who had never trained or played as a unit and despite good individual performances there was little connection in defence causing us to constantly play on the back foot .
Going forward was a different matter. Andrew Walker, Ben King and Ben Anderson connected well all day providing many scoring opportunities at first phase. The scoring came from a 'ping pong' moments with the gap between attack and defence evident.The Keswick left wing was dangerous and soon went over 7-5 to the hosts ,quickly followed by another 12-5 down. But Park bounced, sweeping passing from left to right and saw Oli Ellis cross the line 12-12 with the kick . Back came Keswick making ground down the left wing again 19-12 hosts. Then another following a back row pick up as we failed to defend fringes. All of a sudden we were 24-12 down and in a scrap,
A penalty to Park and we opted for the corner, great set piece led to a driving maul with Joey Wilkinson crossing the whitewash . At 17-24 we were still in it . But were then punished by two breakaway tries which were the result of poor midfield tackling, 36-17 down and things looked grim. But this Lions squad do not give up , more flowing play from the backs saw Nathan Coxon go in under the posts , Ben King converted , then following a breakdown in progress King launched a speculative up and under , Walker followed up and tackled the full back who had elected to run from his own line , he got to his feet then jackled the ball and went over. all of a sudden 36 -33, we dared to dream .But we were gassed and two more tries from the hosts put paid to our hopes. final score 46-31.
I have already mentioned the negatives but on a positive this group never gave up , the backs played some great rugby and individuality the forwards did well and the lack of unit structure is just down to lack of familiarity with our shapes and each other ,
Big thanks to the backs who helped out in the pack and thanks to Knoxy as Aqua man . Lastly congratulations to Connor Rogerson on his engagement and thanks for running the line.
Many thanks to Keswick RFC for providing some of the photos
