RUGBY: After two defeats, Upper Eden were mightlily pleased to come from behind for a well-earned win at Pennine Park on Saturday, but their North Lancs/Cumbria League clash finished on a sour note when De La Salle started a mass brawl involving half the players on the pitch.

Eden had begun brightly, establishing early forward supremacy which resulted in a series of penalty scrums as the visitors were forced backwards. But all the good work failed to yeild points and, after Rick Heron had failed with a long range penalty attempt, it was De La Salle who opened the scoring.

A switch in play caught Eden on the wrong foot as De La Salle exploited a gap in the home defence to run in a try, which they then converted. Eden stormed back but simple errors cost them the chance to equalise and, despite their better posession and territorial advantage, De La Salle were still 0-7 ahead at half time.

De La Salle missed the chance to go further ahead with a penalty from the restart but Heron was on target with a penalty for Eden and that seemed to lift his side. A tactical kick into the corner followed, the lineout was won and Eden set up a rolling maul from which Karl Haygarth touched down. Heron added the conversion from the touchline and Eden were, at last, in front.

De La Salle were clearly rattled but sound tackling and covering never gave them a chance to bounce back and another kick into the corner, and another lineout success led to another rolling maul. This time second row Brian Allison scored and Heron missed the conversion, but Eden were now 15-7 up.

When De La Salle's final push failed to produce points, tempers took over and the referee called time as both sides became locked in a mass brawl with only minutes remaining.

The match was sponsored by Aldersons Garage of Nateby.

Next week sees Eden at Netherhall while the Boars travel to Workington for an A-team fixture.