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Cockermouth continued their run of improved performances and put the Steelers on the back foot from the kick off when they were awarded a penalty, a quick tap by John Taylor led to a further infringement and Andrew Skillen stepped up to give the home side a 3-0 advantage. On 20 mins Cockermouth looked as though they would increase the lead but the ball was knocked on in-goal. However 2 minutes later, after some good work by the forwards, Andrew Skillen received quick ball and rounded the defence to score in the corner to make it 8-0.
Another Skillen penalty gave the home side an eleven-point cushion but Cockermouth didn’t have things all their own way. On 32 mins Steelers pinned Cockermouth in the home 22 and after some good driving scored out wide. On the stroke of half time Cockermouth looked as though they might score a similar try themselves but strong defending kept them out leaving the scores 11-5 at the break.
The Steelers played a big part in making this an entertaining game by trying to play open rugby, but this back fired slightly when they tried to run the ball wide from their own 22m. After a knock on and scrum they conceded a penalty which Skillen duly converted. Minutes later Stuart Moore set off from his own 22m on an enthralling run which ended in him being tackled 5 metres from the Steelers try line. Cockermouth increased their lead when they upped the tempo and took a series of quick tap penalties, Stephen Richardson, in his comeback game, was on hand to crash over.
The Steelers never gave up and made the home pack work extremely hard to gain any advantage, once again for Cockermouth Wayne Kavanagh was outstanding in the loose. On 78 mins Skillen took his personal tally to an impressive 17 points when he knocked over a penalty giving Cockermouth a fairly comfortable victory of 22-5.
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