Cumbria have given themselves a chance of winning their county championship pool if they can pull off a victory in Saturday’s final game with Cheshire.
After a narrow one point home defeat to Staffordshire on the opening day Cumbria roared back with a convincing 47-17 win at Carlisle over Northumberland.
The two sides had lost their opening games so a win was imperative for both if they were to keep alive any hopes of winning their pool.
It was the home side who started the livelier and a well-judged 50/22 kick from full-back Aaron Stephens gave them good early field position.
They didn’t score directly from this line-out but then won a penalty from it which was kicked close to the line where they worked the catch and drive nicely from the lineout and Tom McCullough claimed the try at the back of the maul.
Cumbria were penalised at the restart and the visitors opted for the kick at goal and cut the arrears to 7-3.
It wasn’t long before the home side extended their lead after a knock-on at the restart and the visitors were penalised at the scrum.
Cumbria subsequently had another attacking line-out in the corner and although the attempted driven maul went to ground they went through the phases, working across the touch line left to right.
The referee then brought play back to the left corner for a previous infringement and the home side were quicker to react and the penalty was tapped for skipper Matt Houghton to go over virtually unopposed.
Cumbria scored a third try the first time they moved the ball wide. Ben Dixon burst a tackle at outside centre and got away from where it looked as if he might put the winger away but cut inside into clear space and left the full back for dead to score under the posts.
They were now on a roll and again got the ball away wide on the right in space and Houghton and McCullough combined to set Glen Chesher clear to score.
Northumberland then got themselves into the game and spent some time in the home 22 where they won a penalty. It was tapped and ran with them going close to scoring before they were awarded another.
Again it was tapped and this time their flanker found a gaping hole in the home defence which he romped through to score under the posts.
The home side completed the scoring in the first half running a penalty on half-way. It went wide where Tom Graham timed his pass nicely to Houghton and he in turn put Dan Shorrock away to show plenty of pace and make the line.
Cumbria led 33-10 at the break with the game virtually over, as the visitors would have to score first in the second period if they were going to make a contest of it – and they weren’t able to do that.
The home side added to their tally when Alex Ryder galloped through a gap on the 22 in the defensive line and almost made the line but scrum half Devin Coyle was there to finish-off the move.
That was almost game over but Northumberland did huff and puff and added a second try as the Cumbrian effort did rather fade when they rang the changes off the bench.
They added one more try when they shunted the visitors’ pack over their own line at a set scrum for McCullough to claim the try at number eight.
