Last updated 19:44, Thursday, 03 July 2008

CUMBRIA lost the second match of their Australian tour despite a strong first-half performance against a formidable Windsor Wolves outfit.

The teams went toe-to-toe early on, with big defence from Kyle Lofthouse, of Ellenborough, and Tom Sibley.

But eight minutes in to the game the hosts struck with an off-load from their Tongan prop forward allowing their hooker to score between the posts.

Cumbria knuckled down and started to get into their rhythm, forcing Windsor back with strong running from the forwards and good completion rates.

Cumbria’s pressure started to tell and following a Windsor drop-out, good work saw 20-year-old Barrow Island centre Aaron Low crash over near the posts, Nathan Mossop’s conversion levelling the scores.

Three minutes later further Cumbria pressure forced the hosts to spill possession near their line, and from the resulting set, Hensingham’s Kyle Amor scored on the left touchline.

However with half-time fast approaching, a speculative kick bounced wickedly and Windsor regained possession to score under the posts and go in to the break 12-10 up.

The second half was a different story, Cumbria making repeated errors in possession gifting the ball to the hosts time after time.

Heroic defence kept Windsor at bay early in the half but 15 minutes in they scored a converted try.

From then on in it was much the same, Cumbria spending most of the half in defence, and against a side of Windsor’s quality, the game could only go one way.

The Cumbria squad knows what it has to do for the remaining two games of the tour and players believe they can turn it around tomorrow against the Penrith Waratahs.

For Cumbria, captain Eddie Robinson was man-of-the-match, shading young Low.