Last updated at 13:15, Monday, 12 March 2012

Egremont Rangers 32 Ince Rose Bridge 22: Egremont Rangers will be in the eagerly-anticipated Carnegie Challenge Cup third round draw this week.

The west Cumbrians rose to the challenge once again by defeating Conference League premier division outfit Ince Rose Bridge 32-22 at Gillfoot Park on Saturday to earn their place. Despite playing on a heavy pitchy, both teams got off to a quick start with visiting Rose Bridge bagging the first converted try within three minutes.

Then Egremont struck back, first Ryan Barnes got on to the end of a clever John Paul Brocklebank kick to the corner, then Mally Caton crashed over under the posts, with Brocklebank converting the latter.

Rose Bridge came back at their hosts and retook the lead with two tries, one converted to make it 16-10 in their favour. However, Egremont levelled matters right on the stroke of half time when Brocklebank danced his way over the line and converted for 16-16. Ince Rose Bridge started the second half brightly to bag another converted try but the scores were soon level once more with Kevin Brown touched down and Brocklebank converted.

A mistake in the visitors’ defence gave Egremont the chance they needed to break the deadlock.

Clayton Sutton pounced on the loose ball and looked as though he would score but the Rose Bridge defence closed in. Sutton then quickly swung the ball inside for Matty Palmer and he touched down. This made for a tense finale but Egremont sealed the win with a second individual try from Brocklebank with one minute remaining.

He added the conversion and Egremont were home and dry with the 32-22 win. Now they will go into the draw on Tuesday at Whitehaven RLFC to see which side they will face in the third round, when the Championship and Championship One sides enter the fray.

First published at 11:28, Monday, 12 March 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk