Cumbria produced a splendid performance to beat East Midlands 21-17 in their Bill Beaumont County Championship clash at Carlisle.
They had raced into a 21-0 lead; had replacement forward Matt Houghton red-carded and played the whole second half with 14 men.
It became a question of whether they could hold on and for a 10-minute spell in the final quarter were down to 13 men after Arran Sullivan was sin-binned. They had been down to 13 earlier when Greg Wrathall was yellow-carded.
The game was played at a fast tempo with Cumbria keen to utilise their apparent extra pace which regularly caused problems for the visitors.
Although Cumbria’s scrum was solid the line-outs did not work as well as they might have hoped for but they still managed to carve out the better opportunities.
Kirkby Lonsdale winger Harry Huddlestone set them on their way with the first try which Glen Weightman converted.
Peter Weightman at flanker was continually running hard at the East Midlands defence and he rounded off a slick Cumbrian move by scoring the second try, again converted by Weightman.
In the 40th minute Cumbria extended their lead when full-back Jamie McNaughton used his blistering pace to race over from 40 metres and Weightman again converted.
There had been a number of stoppages in the first-half with the physios regularly employed tending knocks and the referee added an extra nine minutes.
During that time East Midlands reduced the arrears with a converted try while Cumbria had Houghton red-carded after an altercation with an East Midlands forward.
The third quarter of the game was crucial and despite operating with just 14 men Cumbria dug in effectively and maintained their lead.
Into the final quarter and Sullivan went to the bin, East Midlands scored an unconverted try and for Cumbria it was all hands to the pump.
A third try for the visitors set up a nail biting finish but gritty defence saw Cumbria through to victory.
Cumbria travel to Nuneaton on Saturday for their final Championship game against Warwickshire with an outside chance of qualifying for the knock-out stage.
Staffordshire, who beat Cumbria 31-24 at Wigton a week earlier, also triumphed against Warwickshire on Saturday 52-35. East Midlands beat Warwickshire 41-24 when they met.
So Staffordshire are in the driving seat but with Cumbria and East Midlands still in with a shout of pegging them back with wins on Saturday.
