Penrith continued their surge to the Regional 2 North title whilst condemning neighbours Carlisle to relegation.
A glance at the league table might have suggested a win for league leaders Penrith at Warwick Road would have been a mere formality and the 48-12 scoreline might suggest that was what happened.
But in reality it was a real slog against a side that always seems to save it’s best performances for this fixture.
The visitors played way below their best in the first half, led by less than a score at the break and were reduced to 14 men. Their hosts were buoyed with scoring just before the break and were clearly up for it and a home win looked on the cards.
Winters Park Head Coach David Preston was less than impressed with his side’s approach to the game and their early efforts and read the riot act at half time.
Although the visitors were poor early on and gave away unnecessary penalties and their defence was not as aggressive as expected they did score after five minutes.
George Graham played the ball directly to inside centre Joe Spencely from a scrum on his own 10 metre line.
Spencely ran the ball into contact and slipped it to Jamie McNaughton who hit the line at pace from full-back and was clear of the cover before he was out of his own half and ran the ball in under the posts for a converted try.
The home side were battling away and allowing the visitors no peace but it was Penrith who came up with the second try.
A penalty was kicked to the corner and hooker Craig Price found jumper Archie Rattray at the front of the line-out and the ensuing maul was driven to the line and then halted illegally.
A second penalty was kicked to the corner, Price and Rattray repeated their drill but this time the ball was driven infield, and when the ball came to Graham he sent the pass back to the touchline for Scott Lancaster to squeeze in at the corner.
As the half ended the home side got a head of steam up and were camped on the visitor’s line and there was some last ditch defending, Arran Pamphilon got pinged for a deliberate knock on, yellow carded and a penalty try was awarded.
He had already been carded for a similar offence earlier so the second yellow became a red and he was off for the rest of the game.
With the half time whistle blown shortly afterwards, Carlisle were 7-12 down and very much still in the game.
However, Preston’s words of wisdom obviously had the desired effect as Penrith were a different side in the second half and they extended their lead after only four minutes of the restart.
A quickly taken Graham tap penalty took them from half way to the 22, where the ball was moved left with both youngsters Dylan Thompson and Rob Coward heavily involved and the ruck formed close to touch.
Mike Fearon went down the short side supported by James Thompson who simply ran over the full back to score.
A charge down in the backs led to the fourth try. Spencely was quick to gather the ball and play was soon on the home line, where the forwards picked and went till Adam Howe spotted the gap to force his way over.
With captain Josh Holmes sin-binned for leading with his arm as Carlisle were pressing forward, the home side struggled to contain the visitors and two tries conceded when he was off put the visitors well in front.
Whilst Jason Israel managed to get onto crash ball for Carlisle’s second try.
Holmes had only just returned when Penrith scored under the posts, with John Bowman incurring the wrath of the referee and Carlisle were still down a man for the next 10 minutes.,
In the final quarter Penrith actually added four tries. The first came as the forwards battered the line from an attacking lineout then Graham set up Spencely from close range and he powered over.
As the visitors pressed on the 22 Nick Dudson, just on for a limping Fearon, spotted Coward in acres of space on the right and his cross field kick was judged to perfection and the young winger picked up his sixth try in six games.
Dudson then exchanged passes with McNaughton to create the gap for him to score and Andy Muir picked up the final try from an attacking line-out.
