An elusive first win of the season remains just that after another defeat for Carlisle in their final home game.
The city side only had themselves to blame after a poor second half performance and indiscipline gifted South Shields Westoe a bonus point, 24-22 win.
Although next to bottom, any doubts that Westoe had given up on staying in Regional 2 North were fairly quickly put to rest early on this game.
Although Carlisle had a chance in the first few minutes to take an early lead, Tyler Callaghan’s sprint down the left touchline was not supported quickly enough and defenders quickly smothered him to extract a penalty in their favour.
This gave the visitors some heart and constant pressing high up into Carlisle’s half reaped benefits as they first benefited from a penalty at the breakdown, then from the resulting line-out moved the ball wide across the park and over in the left corner for a converted try.
Carlisle got on the scoreboard themselves just moments later as a penalty infringement on the half-way line, allowed them a chance for a line-out on the Westoe 22.
The resulting maul was driven towards the line and though defended well, the ball was flung wide for fly half Jake Whittaker to weave and twist his way over the try line at the posts.
Carlisle’s second came five minutes later as they were defending their 22 from a series of Westoe attacks.
A speculative ball thrown wide out to the right by Westoe was picked off by Callaghan and he raced 80 to dot down under the posts for a 12-7 lead.
Carlisle had to defend for much of the rest of the half, with infringements allowing Westoe to keep-up the pressure, until Harrison Reay managed to steal ball, and gallop away down the right touchline to relieve the pressure. This allowed Carlisle some breathing space to re-group and a scrum penalty on half way gave them line-out ball 10 metres out from the Westoe line.
Then followed a classic training ground move, which allowed John Bowman, throwing in in place of regular Tom Graham, the opportunity to go down the blindside on the right touchline and over for Carlisle’s third try, and a 17-7 lead at half time.
Carlisle started well enough in the second half, keeping Westoe deep inside their half.
Then the creeping disciplinary issues caught up with Carlisle as first a side entry at the ruck on the half-way line and then kicking the ball away gifting Westoe another ten metres, meant they had a golden opportunity deep inside the Carlisle half from a line-out catch and drive which they took for their second try.
Carlisle responded well from the re-start and after some long passages of play in the visitors’ half, a line-out on the Westoe 22 gave them the opportunity to attack again.
Though the initial drive broke down on the left, the ball was spread wide for Reay to crash through the defence to establish a ruck central inside the 22.
Then clever interplay between Josh Holmes and Bowman took the ball up to the try line and though initially stopped short, Finn Mulholland took the ball over for Carlisle’s bonus point try and a 22-12 lead after 52 minutes.
Then Carlisle seemed to lose the plot. A minute later Holmes was in the bin for a no arms tackle, and Westoe had their tails up.
Using the extra man they kept up the pressure on the Carlisle defence and though initially repulsed, another penalty gave Westoe the chance for a tap and go on the left which taken quickly, meant there were not enough defenders to stop them going over for their third.
Carlisle managed to see out the yellow card without further incident and both sides were evenly matched for the next 15 minutes.
However, despite winning a penalty on the half way line, with the ball not going out, Carlisle were penalised at the breakdown, with yet another ten metres added for dissent.
This only served to allow Westoe field position deep inside the Carlisle half.
The visitors then piled on the pressure and with Carlisle committing more penalties inside their 22, a five metre scrum for Westoe at the posts served to give them enough position to work the ball across to the right for a penalty try as the winger was adjudged to be in a scoring position when tackled high.
Trailing by two points now, Carlisle tried to get back into the game, but simply couldn’t as Westoe controlled the ball expertly for the last five minutes.
