Sat 18 Dec 2021
St.Benedicts v WPRFC 18th December 2021 – Glendinning leads Park to victory away from home
St.Benedicts 15 – 21 WPRFC
Following a disruptive couple of weeks, Park travelled to their first Cumbria away game at St.Benedicts. This was always going to be tough fixture given the current situation and being the last fixture before the Christmas break and we only managed to field a 15-man squad with no substitutes. St.Benedicts have an impressive home record this season and Park started the day 6th in the table, so it was going to be challenge but Park rose to the occasion with an impressive 80 minutes of grit and determination!
Within the first 3 minutes a couple of mistakes by Park left us 3-0 down by the boot of St.Benedicts. Park picked up the pace and worked hard in both defence and attack and were rewarded on 6 minutes with a penalty which was converted by Cam Flanagan to level the scores.
Park found their rhythm and started to string some great phases of play with our pack working very hard in close contact but could not quite find that elusive first try. St.Benedicts frustrated Park at the ruck and with hard counter rucking they were able to turnover our ball too easily.
St.Benedicts discipline started to play into our favour and a high tackle gave Cam Flanagan the opportunity to take the lead with a penalty. Both sides traded short phases of play but neither could string enough together to take the advantage but on 27 minutes St.Benedicts scored an unconverted try to take the lead.
Half time score 8 – 6
The second half started with an early St.Benedicts high tackle, a quick tap by Alex Glendinning forced St.Benedicts to make the tackle while not 10 metres. James Johnson converted the resultant penalty to take Park into the lead and make the score 8-9. Our line-outs struggled which did not give us a platform to play off. Park then found another gear and some great phase play got us into the St.Benedicts 22 and great passing through the hands allowed debutant Gregor Purves to run in to score a well-earned try which was converted by Cam Flanagan on 51 minutes.
Park started to play some better rugby both in attack and defence but just couldn’t convert this pressure into points but then on 60 minutes with some sublime passing through the hands and a great angled run by Jack England, Jack scored a great try to increase the Park lead to 8-21. St.Benedicts found another gear and pressurised Park which forced Park to defend on their line. We showed great discipline and determination on our own line and following a penalty 5 metres out Park held up St. Benedicts from scoring. The pressure continued and Park had to defend and protect their lead but on 34 minutes St.Benedicts scored under the posts with a converted try.
The last 6 minutes of the game was very tense, but Park dug deep with all 15 players working hard to secure a very well earned away win which puts us 3rd in the table.
Final score St.Benedicts 15 – 21 WPRFC
In conclusion it is fair to say that the whole 15-man squad showed a huge amount of heart in the Park shirt and deserve the credit of probably one of the best team performances which we are all very proud of. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
