Cockermouth Titans under-16s opened the 2018 season with a tough challenge in the BARLA Xamax National Youth Cup.

Confidence was high in the 24-man Cockermouth camp which left coaches with some tough decisions to make for the game with Latchford Giants.

The game began well with props Matty Lamb and Ben Ridley running hard and making plenty of metres.

The game was only four minutes old when Titans got the upper hand with a trademark try from last season's top scorer Fin Hutton, who went over on the last tackle from short range to make it 4-0.

Latchford began to find their feet and struck back with a converted try to take the lead.

And they increased it shortly after as they took advantage of a tiring Titans defence to go 10-4 ahead.

However Titans dug deep and, with Nathaniel Mossop coming on trying to slow the play the balls down, Titans got back into the game with a penalty.

Half-back Jack Lewis was kicking to touch and making up good ground which then led to some excellent running from centre Olly Anderton to put Finn Hutton in position to crash over for his second try of the game.

Titans trailed 8-10 at half time.

With the wind picking up, the second half got off to a more cautious approach with both teams reluctant to pass wide.

This led to a battle of two good defences with both sides cancelling each other out and the crowed witnessed some big shots going in, especially from eventual Titans man-of-the-match Ben Irving.

Titans then forced a couple of errors and enjoyed some good possession deep into the Latchford half but failing to capitalise due to some poor decision making.

Then the turning point came when Titans centre Olly Anderton going off with a shoulder injury which didn't help Titans going forward.

Following another penalty Latchford Giants cemented their place into the next round by going over for the last try of the game with little over five minutes to play, making the final score 8-16.

A Cockermouth spokesman said: "Titans will take the positives moving forward that they had dominated the game for large parts and were individually better then a big Latchford Giants side.

"They now just need to play together and learn to be more critical in the opposition's half and not play one-man rugby.

"This I'm sure will come with some more training sessions ready for the start of the season."