Carlisle produced their best performance of the season in their 31-24 home defeat by Percy Park – but it left them still seeking a first win.
The visitors had beaten the league leaders Morpeth away last week while Carlisle had been thumped at Durham City.
Yet there were signs for Carlisle last week, despite the score-line, that there were positives to be taken from that game, especially in the forward pack, who dominated Durham in the set piece.
From the kick off there was a different look about Carlisle. There was an edge and aggression about the side that had been missing of late.
That was demonstrated in an early scrum as the forwards rocked the visitors pack backwards giving Carlisle early possession and territory.
With the ball swung wide across the park winger Tyler Callaghan made some hard yards down the right before being caught in the 22.
With forwards catching up at the ruck, some hard driving work by Harrison Reay and captain Josh Holmes took the ball just short of the try line. With the visitors sucked in to defending the ruck, the ball was spun left for Alfie Batty to cross under the posts for Carlisle’s first try with four minutes on the clock. Jason Israel converted.
From the restart, Carlisle secured the ball and after a few phases, a Percy Park infringement allowed Carlisle the chance for a five metre line-out down the left.
With Batty securing the ball, the pack drove up the park towards the line, and the defending Park winger had no chance of stopping Tom Graham as he crashed over for Carlisle’s second try, converted by Israel.
The euphoria didn’t last though as indiscipline gifted the visitors territory from penalties, and as they camped on the line on the left, the ball was swung right across the park with their centre going over for their first converted try five minutes later.
There was little to choose between the two sides but unfortunately for Carlisle it was Percy Park who again exploited a home infringement to secure territory and a line-out inside the Carlisle half.
As they spread the ball wide from the line-out, a missed tackle allowed the Percy Park centre through, and he evaded the last line of defence to score for their second converted try to level the scores at 14-14.
Carlisle picked themselves up, pushed their way up the park and secured a scrum on the Percy Park 22.
With Holmes picking up from the back of the scrum he dived right and established ruck ball ten metres out. As the Percy Park defence rushed across to defend, scrum half Lung spread the ball left to Israel who spotting a mismatch in the visitors defence, threaded the ball behind the defence for Nathan Greenhow to run through and dive over for Carlisle’s third try on the half hour mark and restore their lead.
Carlisle led 19-14 at the break but the second half was different. Energy levels had clearly dropped, and Carlisle were caught napping from the off, with the visitors exploiting numbers advantage down the right to take the lead within a minute from a converted try.
A few minutes later a penalty infringement by Carlisle allowed the visitors kicker an easy three-point penalty with the wind at his back.
The game then became scrappy, with the visitors having a lot more possession than the first half, but unable to make it count.
Carlisle had opportunities to re-take the lead and a five metre scrum was desperately defended by the visitors before they managed to burgle the ball at a breakdown and kick out of defence to relieve the pressure.
However, it was the visitors who got the next score with five minutes left as more indiscipline by Carlisle allowed Percy Park the opportunity to kick deep into Carlisle’s half for a five metre line-out.
Securing ball they sucked Carlisle into defending the maul before a kick through behind their defence caught them out as Park won the footrace to dot down for their bonus point try, moving the score-line to 19-31.
To their credit Carlisle did not give up, and as they broke out of defence, a rollicking run from Graham and then another hard carry by John Walker established position inside the 22.
With the visitors scrambling back to defend and Carlisle’s backs arriving in numbers, Israel threaded another grubber through towards the try line with Whittaker arriving to pounce on the ball for a deserved fourth try and bonus point.
