West Bowling 40 Lowca 10

 Latest Aussie import stand-off Josh Essex crossed for two tries on his debut as West Bowling ran out comfortable winners in the second round BARLA National Cup tie against Cumbrians Lowca at a rain-lashed Bankfoot Oval.

The huge home pack clearly relished the atrocious conditions, producing a number of telling drives in an impressive opening.

But it was Lowca who opened the scoring when they finally got hold of the ball, spreading it out wide to send wingman Andy Harper flying in at the corner.

Bowling pack leader Steve Illingworth rectified matters by opening up a huge gap in front of the posts to send prop Andrew Senior charging over, leaving wingman Lee Innes to add the extras.

But the lead was shortlived; a cross-kick got caught in the wind, leaving the visitors’ other wingman Dave Colley to collect with ease to canter to the whitewash. Centre Lee Morgan added the conversion for a 10-6 advantage.

Bowling once again concentrated on keeping possession and four tremendous plunges in front of the posts found the bulky frame of Liam Martin too much to handle. Innes was again on target but they finished the half with 12 men when Essex was sent to the sin bin for obstruction.

The enforced rest clearly benefited the skilful import as he took on the defence from a scrum to glide over on the short route, which was quickly followed by another well-worked effort when full back Gareth Cullington made the extra man to collect a neat off-load to sail under the uprights.

Innes made sure of a full reward to put Bowling virtually out of reach at 24-10.

The Lowca pack was practically out on their feet as a result of the constant bombardment from the home six and just when they thought things couldn’t get any worse, on came the colossal frame of second-row forward Gareth Shepherd to add to their woes.

He set up Martin, who unfortunately dropped the ball when attempting to touch down, but the prop forward quickly made up for it with another barnstorming run for his brace.

Shepherd skittled aside three defenders on his way to a predestined touchdown and Innes just shaved the wrong side of the posts for his only miss at goal of the game.

The last try of what was a splendid cup tie came from Essex, who produced a carbon copy of his earlier effort just to prove it was part of his repertoire.