Carlisle Cougars hit the ground running in front of an enthusiastic home crowd to earn their first league win of the new season.
They beat their visitors Halifax 38-0 – delivering the match points with the bonus of a clean sheet.
New captain, Jess Barnes and vice captains, Philippa Chadwick and Chrissie Hadfield were looking for a good start – and they could hardly have had any better.
The home side knew they needed to make an early impact and this was delivered within the first 20 minutes.
They scored three tries through Chadwick, Vanessa Hagen and Bethan Lloyd, all converted by Sarah Smyth.
However, Halifax dominated many of the scrums and had some powerful forwards who largely prevented the Cougars from scoring any more points before half-time.
In the second half the Cougars were keen to deliver the bonus point for a fourth try and it came in excellent fashion.
They moved the ball from the back of a scrum, along the backs to winger Emma Taylor who went in for the fourth try.
Carlisle showed good skill in the line-outs and from one of them the ball was given to Chadwick who slalomed through the line of defenders to touch down under the posts for Smyth to converted.
The Cougars had shown excellent team work with the flow between forwards and backs going well and they even added another try before the end from Hagen.
Halifax worked hard during the game and the scoreline was a reflection on the effort the Cougars had put in during pre-season preparations.
After that encouraging win the Cougars are looking forward to their next game at home to Horden and Peterlee on October 8.
New players are always welcome at training which is on Wednesday nights (start 6.45pm) at Warwick Road.
Players of the match awards went to: Forward – Liv Lopez; Back – Sarah Smyth; Opposition choice – Vanessa Hagen.
