Following their narrow victory at Windermere last week, Workington made it two Cumbria League wins in succession as they ground out a hard fought 31 - 15 triumph over bottom club Millom at The Ellis, who remain winless after 12 attempts.

The Zebras looked lively from kick off and after Sam Robinson smoothly converted a penalty on 4 minutes they were camped in the visitors' half eagerly sniffing out their first try, which duly came 8 minutes later when a forceful scrum pushed them over the line and Grant Reid was on hand to touch down with Robinson converting.I

Millom regrouped quickly and began to take the game to their hosts with well drilled surges into Zebras' 22 and their probing yielded an unconverted try on 18 minutes when their equally determined scrummaging led to them crashing over the whitewash.

Back came Workington and they did so in style with two tries in as many minutes as first an excellent pattern of attack was polished off by John McCrickerd who powered home to score and then on 28 minutes, Tom Sewell collected the ball just past halfway before turning on a devastating turn of pace to leave Millom flummoxed as he delivered a spectacular solo try. Once again, Robinson was on hand to execute both conversions.

With the score now 24 - 5 it looked as if Millom were going to collapse but they had other ideas as again they belied their lowly status with more well crafted play and 8 minutes from time bagged their second unconverted try when another surge caught the Zebras napping and the South Cumbrians cut through the defence to finish off in the corner.

For the opening 15 minutes of the second half it was an evenly poised affair as both sides initially cancelled each other out in midfield before eventually launching several dangerous attacking forays into each other's halfs, only to be undone at times by clumsy knock ons and excellent tackling at other times - especially from Workington's Matt Gorley, who was twice on hand to thwart Millom from scoring.

Suddenly, the visitors took a firm grip on the game and on 62 minutes their intensive pressure caused the Zebras to buckle and concede a third try which was once again unconverted - had all three kicks been successful there would only have been three points between the sides.

Just as Millom were keen to pull off an unlikely comeback, so Workington were determined to close the game out and maybe snatch another try to secure a bonus point, especially with McCrickerd, Sewell and Jonny Howarth all working extremely hard with menacing approaches in Millom territory.

With the last play of the match, Workington did indeed clinch the bonus point right on full time when more precision scrummaging ended with David Wordsworth being the lucky man to scramble down and score. Robinson maintained his perfect record with another conversion.

The promotion boat may have long since sailed away, but with two successive wins behind them, Workington can now plan a voyage for the safe waters of mid table respectability.

By John Hastings @ The ESG

Workington RFC

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