CUMBRIA team manager Mark Richardson is looking forward with some relish to Saturday’s deciding game in the County Shield Championship.

The Cumbrians travel to Mansfield to take-on Notts, Lincs and Derby after an excellent 42-10 home win last week-end against Staffordshire.

The Three Counties won 28-20 in Staffordshire a week earlier so this is to decide who will go through to the semi-finals of the competition which has its final at Twickenham.

Richardson, who held aloft the County Championship trophy for Cumbria back in 1997, is not ready to count his chickens but believes the current crop of young players can put the county back on the rugby map.

“It would be nice if we could be playing the top county sides again like Lancashire, Yorkshire and Durham.

“I was very encouraged by what I saw against Staffordshire. We thought beforehand that we had a squad with a lot of potential and that was borne out in the match,” said the team manager.

Cumbria, who will be training tonight and Thursday, will be without Workington centre Martin Armstrong who had to retire early on Saturday.

They will be travelling down on Saturday morning for the decider against a Notts, Lincs and Derby side who staged a remarkable recovery to beat Staffordshire in the last 15 minutes.

To listen to Mark’s views on last Saturday, prospects for the game at Mansfield and a view on what went wrong with his club side Aspatria, just click on http://www.getnoticedonline.co.uk/audio/malcolm-brown/mark-richardson-2.html

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