I caught up with my favourite league on Friday night as cooke entertained, one of our featured clubs, CIYMS in the opening round of Championship 1.
The opening exchanges were a bit stop start as the teams adjusted to the new tackle heights, however the changes do look as though they will benefit the game as a spectacle in the long term.
Cooke opened the scoring after 7 minutes with Jonny McClune hitting the line after a period of pressure in the CI 22. Andy McMurray added the extras to give Cooke a 7 – 0 lead.
It was a fairly close game for the next 20 minutes. cooke edged territory but some resolute defending on the line from CI prevented the home side from adding to their tally. CI made the most of their opportunities and after working a line out in the Cooke 22 the visitors bundled over for Michael Houston to claim the try to take the score to 7 – 5 on the 27th minute.
Cooke worked their way back up field and after a period of pressure they were awarded a penalty try, somewhat fortunately, to take the score to 14 – 5 in Cooke favour as half time approached.
Michael Lawton pulled back a penalty for CI before the break to take it to 14 – 8 as the teams changed ends.
A try from Cooke Ethan Sloan immediately after the break looked to have pushed the game in Cooke’s favour with lead stretched to 21 – 8 after McMurray’s conversion.
However a searing break from CI’s Paddy Beaverland, converted by Lawton, at the end of the third quarter pulled it back to a one score game with the score at 21 – 15.
Any thoughts of a comeback were quickly quashed as Cooke finished off the game in style with tries from Ben Pentland and Conor Phillips. McMurray converted the first for a final score of Cooke 33 CIYMS 15.
Match Gallery
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