Aspatria were De la Salle`s opposition for the first home game of the season and according to the Aspatria forum and its pundits, this was a game Della could`nt win.Aspatria as expected arrived with a side containing players of considerable size, while Della looked miniscule in comparision.It was a fine afternoon for rugby with the mornings rain clearing to give a cool afternoon with a slight breeze blowing from touchline to touchline,a wind that would give neither team any advantage.The Della coaches were forced into making changes from last weeks fifteen the most noticeable Chris Petrou coming out of the second row to play at fullback.Della as always gave youth a chance of making a claim for a regular spot with three eighteen year olds in the side Alex Dixon and Tom Halsall on the wings and Adam Graham at scrum half .The game started with Della kicking to Aspatria and the visitors made quite plain their early game plan of using their huge centres to try and break the Della line ,yet time and again they seemed surprised at the tenacity of the Della defence.The Della line out was not working well with Ryan Worthington probably the smallest jumper in the league,Aspatria in comparison had two huge second rows who were giving their scrum half plenty of ball and it was only the beligerence of the Della defence that was keeping us in the game,the Della scrum however was working well and captain Paul Berry was keeping the Della going forward with pick ups at number eight .With twenty minutes of the game gone Aspatria continued with their tactic of trying to bludgeon a path up the middle but as always the Della centres Mike Halsall and Jimmy Evans were rock solid in defence and on a number of occasions Aspatria were forced to kick to clear their lines.At this point in the game Aspatria must have thought that they would have amassed a lead, and as every one knows in normal circumstances the baby comes before the placenta, but it was Della who were in the acendency and when we were awarded a penalty Petrou slotted the kick to give Della the lead 3-0and in this instance the placenta came before the baby,Della were at this point applying pressure on the Aspatria defensive line and the quality and ferocity of the Della ball carriers was giving the visitors defence plenty to think about.Paul Berry and Steve Brooks were giving Aspatria plenty to do when they had ball in hand .And when the Della backline took on the Aspatria line stand off Lee McCormick broke the line with Paul Berry on his shoulder the two combined with some superb inter passing which culminated with Paul Berry crashing over to score ,Petrou added the extras10-0. Aspatria though are made of stern stuff and came back at Della, with half time approaching the visitors started to put pressure on the Della line and Della were forced to give away a series of penalties from which the visitors took kicks to the corner to give their impressive line out a chance to win ball for their backs to probe, and the pressure eventually told when Aspatria sucked in the Della defence and moved the ball wide to the right wing to score a class tr,y which they converted with a super kick from the touch line 10-7.This score brought up the half time whistle .
From the start of the second half both teams upped the tempo of the game looking for the decisive score that would give them the win.The referee who up to this point had been having a good game made a series of decisions which would lead to the eventual outcome of this game .With Aspatria pressing the Della line and Della defending well Della skipper Paul Berry ripped the ball from an attacker and was penalised unfairly and issued with a yellow card,Aspatria were awarded a penalty which they took with an illegal flying wedge which the Della defence held up,the ref awarded another penaltyand Aspatria having got away with it once set up the flying wedge again and were held once more and Della back rower Daniel Smyth ripped the ball clear only for the Aspatria lads to take exception and fists began to fly, and this is where it gets plain barmy as the fracas spilled towards the toudchline the Della skipper who was under a yellow card some how got involved and in the aftermath the ref upgraded the yellow to a red and to add insult to injury he yellow carded Daniel Smyth( for what only god knows).Now when peace was restored Aspatria were awarded a penalty which they kicked to the corner and from thee resulting line out the second row drove the ball into two of his own players, and crashed over but the ref awarded a try and not the accidental offside so Aspatria took the lead for the first time 10-12. Now with Della down to thirteen men and with thirty minutes to go, player coach Lee McCormick had to gather his troops, and although i am not a fan of breast feeding in public Bambi had to suckle his men and restore some order.Della had to withstand a torrid ten minutes and shipped a penalty for Aspatria to extend their lead 10-15 .Now with Smudger reinstated on the pitch and more strong words from McCormick and a brutal internal examination of where Della were in this game led to the best team performance for a long time, you would have thought that Aspatria were a man down such was the pressurethat Della exerted on the visitors defence, and it was the referee time and again who came to their aid,but Della smelt blood and were surging forward at every opportunity and with minutes to go Della sucked in the Aspatria defence on their try line and whipped the ball wide and when it looked as though we must score heartbreak!centre Jimmy Evans tried to chip the defence for Alex Dixon to run on to it, but the kick went straight iinto the Aspatria centres hands and he raced ninety metres to score and break De la Salle hearts.The game now had only minutes now to run and it was time to get club president Eric Clarke into the kitchen,Eric who following a long and distinguised career in pathology was sent to check on the termperature of the pies .This was a stern test for the Della lads but they can be proud of their performance and on this evidence i think they will go well this season.Congratulations to Aspatria this was a good win and a solid performance and i think in the morning quite a few of their players will know they have visited Salford. The De la Salle man of the match was Lee McCormick who was pushed very close by Mike Halsall and Ryan Worthington.