A very strange day indeed with a couple of late arrivals, including one player who had to make his own way after missing his lift from the club ! An expensive day out for that lad !

Acklam started off the stronger and attacked us from the off. They earned an early penalty in front of the posts, which was successfully kicked for a 3-0 lead. The home side went 10-0 up after some poor defence from us as we misread a crash shape and an Acklam went in pretty much untouched.

This gave the boys the kick up the backside they needed as Ben Jubb crashed over the gain line taking several tacklers with him. We played round the corner before Sam Busby picked a poor pass off his boot laces to go over in the corner.

Off the kick off we went back into Acklam's half after a trademark run from Rob Baldwin. The Acklam wing was smashed to the floor as Baldwin got us back on attack. From the next phase it looked like we had lost the ball but George Bambrick immediately stole it back. Matthew Russell then hit Sam Cleife in stride and with an incredible in-and-away, he rounded his man to score in the corner. 10-10 after 20 mins.

We were now dominating the game with our scrum going forward and lineout possession being secured by Simeon Archibald and George Bambrick. However, we were putting a lot of ball down and throwing silly offloads that prevented us from scoring two or three tries in the final 20 mins of the first half.

We did however score one as the ref finally let us take a quick tap as Sam Busby ran in untouched, conversion added by Matthew Russell for 17-10 at half time.

Brendan Thomas had already come on after 20 mins but we threw Darren Kelly and Oliver Harris into the mix. Kelly made a big impact after coming on creating quick ball after another big carry by Rob Baldwin. The backs got involved in the play with some nice touches from Ben Jubb, Adam Lambert and Sam Busby. Eventually we had created a hole in the middle as George Bambrick crashed over. Nice conversion added from wide out by Matthew Russell to make it 24-10 as far as we were concerned ! Although the ref was to have other ideas.

Just when it looked like we were in control of the game and looking to run away from them Acklam got a huge momentum swing as George Bambrick was yellow carded. Our opponents then got back into the game as the match got chaotic. They scored a good try from some nice structured play to make it 24-15.

Looking for some energy we made some rotational subs as back on went Jonny Allton and James Moore. At the next scrum we smashed Acklam back and won the ball against the feed. Matthew Russell saw the defenders come out of the line and went into the gap. He then hit Sam Busby in stride for the clubs record try scorer to seal his hat trick. 29-15 surely game over - nope.

Acklam attacked us from the kick off and went for a cross field kick - Max Cook jumped up and was wiped out quite badly. He managed to jump up and get hold of the culprit and one of his friends. David Medjogbodo-Lawson run 20m to his aid. Another Acklam player waded in and now Cook and the Acklam 8 were exchangin more than plesantries. Rightly the ref yellow carded the original foul and put both arriving players in the bin. However, despite a 2-1 yellow card score line the penalty was reversed.

After back to back penalties they carried into the middle and then went back blind for a try to make it 29-20. The game got even more complicated as we gave away more penalties allowing Acklam to get back on our 22m without much effort. Again they scored on the short side to close the gap to four points.

Suddenly the game was in jeopardy as Acklam were then awarded a penalty 40m out. After consulting with the ref they went for the posts which we thought was a bit odd as they needed a try to win. Fair play as the kick into the wind fell over the post and the ref stated Acklam were now up by a point - what !!

The boys kicked off with two mins to go and we earned a couple of kickable penalties which we turned down as those on the side lines were adamant the ref had the score wrong. Into the last minute and Max Cook was then upended illegally by his friend he had made earlier. With the coach wanting a scrum calmness prevailed in the experience of team manager Matthew Dawson who said lets just take the points and make sure of the result. Matthew Russell kicked the penalty to allegedly put us back ahead.

Ref called last play and we knocked the kick off on which was a concern after the ref signalled knock on and called for a scrum putting his hand out signalling Acklam feed. A polite reminder from the sidelines and the final whistle sounded - discussions with the ref confirming that we had one by four points not the one that he had on his paper. So scoreline agreed 32-28 we headed for the showers.

Perhaps it wasn't surprising to have a close game after we were told by Acklam a close rival of ours had shared footage and thoughts with them.

In other news, unfortunately Medicals have withdrawn from our Papa Johns Cup fixture. Pretty annoying, as we had sacrificed the two sessions prior to Acklam on improving our play for the Meds game. In addition, Ben Jubb had done some analysis of Meds, which he was to present this week at training. However, into the next round which is scheduled for 26th April - we believe we may have a home game against Wigton or Cockermouth who will play this Saturday.

Up the Vos !

From that penalty