League leaders Stockport demonstrated why they have only dropped a point so far as they claimed another bonus point win at Carlisle’s Warwick Road.
It finished 43-21 to the top team in North One West who possess a big pack, which was able to use the line-out and driving maul to great effect.
Just three minutes in Carlisle committed an offence in a Stockport driving maul, and the visitors put the first three points on the board.
Carlisle were quick to respond and went through the phases, switching their point of attack across the visitors defence, until quick ball across the back line, found flanker Dan Holmes on the left.
He beat the last defender to go over in the corner and Jason Israel converted for a 7-3 lead.
Stockport were equally quick to respond and as they pushed Carlisle deeper into their own 22, ball across to the right found the winger.
He kicked through in the tackle and their hooker won the foot race to score their first try, converted by their fly half.
The Stockport pack was beginning to exert considerable dominance, and when Carlisle were awarded a scrum 10 metres out from their own line, the visitors took one against the head, driving the home side back towards the line.
Although Carlisle managed to stop them trundling over, a long floating pass out wide, found their winger who had no troubling going round the outside of the defence to score Stockport’s second.
Their third came just before the half hour mark as Carlisle were trying to gain some territory in the Stockport half.
A high ball was fielded by their fly half who skipped his way through the Carlisle defence offloading to his supporting flanker for an easy run in under the posts to extend the lead to 22-7, where it would remain until half time.
There was no let up in the second half, with a line-out deep in Carlisle territory three minutes in, giving them the opportunity to run hard at the defence.
Some slick off-loading allowed their loose-head to crash through the last man under the posts for their bonus point try.
Carlisle were having to defend for long periods in the second half as the visitors kept up the pressure on the home defence
Stockport scored their fifth on the hour mark, as their flanker dived over from the back of a ruck on the Carlisle line to score his second of the game.
Credit to Carlisle who just stuck at it, and eventually they were rewarded with their second try five minutes later.
As they broke out of their half, winger Ben Purdham made yards down the right touchline and a kick through put pressure on the Stockport defender who committed a penalty.
A quick tap penalty was quickly switched across to the left, where from the back of a ruck just short of the line, second row James Brocket dived over, with Max Connon converting.
Carlisle clearly had found their second wind, and from a scrum restart Dan Holmes flew through the Stockport defence to set up field position deep in Stockport territory.
A succession of penalties then gave Carlisle the opportunity to get up to the five metre line, and with Chris Auld and Nick Yielder combining to get close to the line, Dan Holmes dived under the defence to score his second try and Carlisle’s third.
Any hope that this might prove a resurgence for Carlisle was quickly snuffed out by the visitors as they demonstrated their dominance of the line-out and driving maul to quickly respond to put the game beyond Carlisle’s reach with their sixth and final try.
