Cumbria lost their opening game in the County Championship, going down 31-24 to Staffordshire at Wigton.
But with 12 debutants, and eight players from Kendal unavailable, it was an encouraging performance against a well organised visiting side.
Staffordshire included 12 players from the Burton club and four from Stoke so they were much more used to the patterns of play.
Team manager Gary Hewer said: “Under the circumstances we were really pleased at a proud Cumbrian performance, although disappointed to lose.
“We have been promoted from our Twickenham success two years ago so it was always going to be tougher.
“Although the Kendal game was called-off late and could have brought their players in we felt we had a moral responsibility to field the team we had selected after mid-week training.
“That was what we did and the players who came in let nobody down. The experience will be invaluable to them all for the future.”
Staffordshire had gone ahead after only seven minutes with a converted try.
After a fairly even spell the visitors scored two more tries, one of them converted and after 36 minutes it was looking ominous as Cumbria trailed 17-0.
But two unconverted tries before half-time from Cockermouth’s Sam Wilson and skipper Tom Graham of Carlisle pulled them right back into it.
Four minutes into the second-half and Cumbria were level with a try from Harry Huddleston (Kirkby Lonsdale) which he converted to make it very much game on.
For the next 20 minutes Cumbria were the best team but they couldn’t get over again.
Then in a seven minute spell midway through the half Staffordshire scored two converted tries and seemed to have taken the game away from the host county.
However a determined effort in the closing stages produced another try by Huddleston, which Ryan Scott (Aspatria) converted but Cumbria were just unable to find an equalising score.
In Cumbria’s Pool One of Bill Beaumont Division Two the other score was East Midlands 41, Warwickshire 24.
Cumbria will host East Midlands at Carlisle on Saturday and will train at the Warwick Road club on Wednesday night.
