Kendal will have been hugely encouraged by their efforts in defeat last week in Regional One North West.
A tremendous fight-back saw them finish only 27-26 in arrears at Mint Bridge against a strong Stockport side.
Although heavily beaten at Sandbach in the seasonal opener that was more like it.
On Saturday they travel to Blackburn which might be a test as they have started with two good away wins – 45-7 at Burnage after a 34-7 win at Wirral.
Kirkby Lonsdale look to be in for a long hard season judging by the opening two results – beaten 86-5 at home by Sandbach after an 87-0 defeat at Rossendale.
Carlisle visit Stockton in Regional Two North – a game which does at least have some sort of form guide.
It’s only the third week of League rugby but Stockton opted not to play last week at Aspatria.
Although the bulk of matches went ahead, four fixtures in the Northern Division were unplayed as clubs took advantage of an RFU directive.
Any clubs uneasy with playing during the period of mourning following the death of Her Majesty the Queen could call off their game.
Stockton opted not to travel to Aspatria and three other League games in the North were postponed for similar reasons.
In addition there were individual absences by club stalwarts around the country who chose not to watch their teams in action as they did not agree with the games going ahead.
Carlisle suffered on the field – men against boys as one observer commented – when they were heavily beaten 60-10 at home by Morpeth.
Whilst Carlisle are clearly in re-building mode, Morpeth are among the favourites to win the League as they have virtually the same squad as played pre-pandemic and were strong then.
Now here’s the form guide. Stockton hosted Morpeth on the opening day of the season and lost 57-7.
That might indicate a close game on Saturday, more like Carlisle’s first match of the season when they lost 17-10 at South Shields Westoe.
Penrith have started best of the four Cumbrian teams in the League and registered a second win when they beat Percy Park 31-15 on Saturday.
It was a very good all-round team effort in the end after a poor start with special praise from the coaches for the back row of Simon Wilson, James Thompson and Archie Rattray.
It’s a big game at Winters Park tomorrow as they entertain Middlesbrough, impressive 31-18 winners at Aspatria on opening day but beaten 20-13 at home by Northern on Saturday.
That could be ominous for Aspatria as they are due to travel to Northern for their second fixture.
Keswick are back at Davidson Park tomorrow for the visit of Percy Park, so no doubt the coaching team will have had words with their Penrith counterparts over their experiences last week in the north east.
Keswick were beaten 24-16 at Durham City after opening their account against Consett on the opening day.
Counties 1 Cumbria games on Saturday are: Cockermouth v Egremont; St Benedict’s v Silloth; Upper Eden v Penrith 2nds; Whitehaven v Millom; Wigton v Hawcoat Park.
