Well what can I say ………. after a long drive up to Workington I was expecting to see us put down a marker for the season ahead and prove our awful performance against Thornhill was nothing more than a pre season blip.
How wrong was I .
The game starts and we look in control defensively , after five minutes a well worked move to our left sees Tali crash over the line and we looked to be cruising.
A couple of sets later Spiers, yet again shoots the line looking for a big hit and ends up giving Workington a penalty ten meters out from our line ( as he did at Thornhill in the previous round) and finding himself despatched to the bin for the next ten minutes,...……. an act which puts us on the back foot and sees us defend our line for the next twenty minutes.
We struggle to make ground and only relieving kicks from Matty B provide us with any respite from Workington's attack.
A try on half time puts us 12- 6 up, but what followed in the second half was very much Thornhillesk , poor ball retention, numerous penalties and a lack of movement with the ball.
I know the conditions were poor and very soft underfoot but with two games in , it shows we can be out played by far less skillfull sides on a poor surface.
Peltier made ground when he was introduces and Douglas put on some good solid hits , but our halves lacked invention and our other forwards struggled to make yards in the heavy conditions.
The acid test comes next week when we entertain the promotion favourites on what should be as good a playing surface as you will find this time of year.
A win or at least a good performance and the loss to Workington will be forgotten , but a loss and a poor showing will see questions asked about the long season ahead and our promotion aspirations.
