It is now five successive league defeats for Workington Zebras after going down 15 - 29 at The Ellis to promotion chasings St Benedict's.

Direct from kick off, St Benny's were on the attack and within 15 minutes their dominance paid off as they cut the Zebras' defence to shreds with two clinically taken tries from Steven Wood and Andrew Middleton, with Wood adding a conversion.

Workington slowly got their act together and after finally making inroads into St Benny's territory, they were rewarded with a coolly taken penalty by Scott Rooke on 23 minutes followed by Andrew McCrickerd charging into the corner for an unconverted try on the half hour mark.

The visitors soon found themselves a man down when Stuart Wilson saw yellow for an infringement, but the Zebras could not make the extra man count, despite exerted pressure and then two minutes from time, were caught flatfooted when Jordan Burns raced clear to touch down, followed by another conversion from Wood.

Within ten minutes of the second half, the lead was further increased and a bonus point secured when Aidan Pirie took advantage of slack Zebras marking to cruise home for an unconverted try and then ten minutes later, Burns left the opposition trailing in his wake as he bagged his second try of the match, which again went unconverted

But Workington managed to regroup again and another period of domination was rewarded on 63 minutes when a well charged scrum ended with Grant Reid crashing over the whitewash for a well deserved try. Rooke adding the conversion to reduce the arrears once again

With Andrew McCrickerd, Sam Robinson, Tom Lawson and Grant Reid all working hard, the Zebras could and should have scored again, but were kept at bay by the stubborn St Benny's backline and despite losing Jack Lewthwaite to another yellow card, the visitors managed to close out the game, which Workington ended with 14 men as Liam Tomlinson also saw yellow for obstruction.

The result leaves Workington ninth in Cumbria League One and following a week's break, they travel to Wigton in the hope that their losing streak has to end.

By John Hastings @ The ESG

Workington RFC

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