Cumbria’s three North One West sides are back in action this afternoon – two of them with welcome home games after last week’s free date.
The one on the road is Penrith who travel to Bowdon with high hopes of recording a second away win against a side who sit third from bottom with one win in four games.
Last time out Penrith were 45-17 home winners against Broughton Park (second bottom) and sit third in the table with only Stockport and Kendal above them in the table.
From that game Penrith will field an unchanged front row while Chris Jackson comes off the bench to partner Dan Richardson in the second row as Ryan Johnson is unavailable.
Josh Dowson is also unavailable but JJ Key, who has started the season in top form, is back to start at number eight.
Ed Swale is back in the side to start at scrum half alongside Mike Fearon who has started every game so far at fly-half.
With both centres Jay Rossi and Arran Pamphilon injured, Matt Allinson and Matt Boustead are partnered at 12 and 13 while Brad Taylor plays his first game since 2019 on the wing after a long-term injury.
Kendal will be looking to get back to winning ways when they host struggling Broughton Park following their first reversal at Firwood Waterloo two weeks ago.
Although Broughton Park have lost all four games, the 45-17 reversal at Penrith was their heaviest and two defeats have earned them bonus points – 26-32 at home to Vale of Lune and and 24-17 at Birkenhead Park.
They didn’t do too bad at home to leaders Stockport, beaten 27-13 so can’t be taken lightly.
Kendal make a change in the front row where Tom Moulton comes in for Hugh Davies and Ross McKay replaces Steve Nelson in the back row.
The one change in the back division sees Mark Carruthers coming into the centre in place of Danny Barker.
Carlisle are precariously placed above the bottom three and face a tough test at home against leaders Stockport.
The city side are still sweating on their appeal over a five point deduction for them pulling out of the re-arranged Firwood Waterloo fixture last week.
The good news for Carlisle coach Matt Shields is that a number of injuries over the last two weeks have cleared up and he will have more players available again, so in a much better position to tackle a strong Stockport side who already have appoints differential of plus100.
In their five games they have scored 165 points and conceded 65, so a sharp attack but perhaps not the most watertight of defences.
