UPPER Eden gained their first away victory since November on Saturday but it was only achieved after a late in the game rally.

For most of the match, Eden were second best to lowly Egremont and their game was flawed by sloppiness and indiscipline. Yet despite this they did achieve the first score of the game when Ian Gowing went over from a rolling maul. However, his try was not converted and Egremont then dominated their visitors.

Eventually, the pressure told and when a maul was driven into the Eden 22, Egremont won the resulting lineout and drove over from the back of the line. Some indifferent Eden defensive work undoubtedly contributed and the conversion was added to give Egremont a 7-5 lead at half-time.

The second half followed much the same pattern and Egremont went further ahead when they won and then ran a penalty which put their winger over in the corner to make it 12-5.

Eden finally responded with some pressure of their own and when Egremont won a five-metre scrum, scrum half Simon Alderson stole the ball from his counterpart and crossed to bring his side back into contention at 12-10.

More Eden pressure and a series of incursions into Egremont territory resulted in the winning try, scored in the last minute by centre Sizwe Zondo, who crossed from a driving maul. Rick Heron added the conversion to give Upper Eden a narrow victory.

Jimmy Thompson and the injured Duncan Rose were adbsent from the line-up and their contributions were sorely missed.

Upper Eden Boars had a much more promising 13-7 win over a physically strong North Ribblesdale A. Full back Dan Murray expertly chased down his own kick and scrum Ban Alderson finished a fine handling move for the Boars' tries and back row Andy Kerr proved an inspiration as North Ribblesdale pressed hard in the second half. The visitors scored after spinning the ball out from a tap penalty, but Mike Hughes kicked a penalty to clinch the game, which was sponsoredby Littlefairs.

This weekend sees both the first XV and the Boars in action at Pennine Park, both against Carlisle teams.