Carlisle have been encouraged by their unbeaten start in Regional 2 North with an opening day draw and then a win.
Both were at Warwick Road and on Saturday they are on the road to Middlesbrough one of the stronger sides in the League, so a more searching test awaits George Graham’s men.
Middlesbrough had opened with a narrow 12-10 home defeat to West Hartlepool but then registered a good 39-22 win at Durham City, the team who had drawn at Carlisle on the opening day.
Carlisle’s 33-20 win over Kirkby Lonsdale means they are Cumbria’s highest-placed team in the early league table – up in third place, two points behind Morpeth and Northern.
Keswick are next in sixth place, hoisted there by a fine win over Aspatria last week and which had followed a narrow defeat to Upper Eden.
The Lakes side follow up with a third successive Cumbrian derby when they visit Kirkby Lonsdale who still have to register their first points after defeats by Carlisle and Aspatria, so are also contesting another county derby.
The game will be controlled by Adam Morrison, an Exchange referee from Durham.
Aspatria would be hurt by their performance against Keswick and were certainly offering no excuses after that 27-3 defeat.
They have the perfect motivation to bounce back on Saturday in front of the Bower Park faithful as they take-on the early leaders Morpeth. Martin Maughan is the man in the middle.
There’s also a Regional 2 North appointment for young Archie Harding who continues to impress, and he is on exchange duty taking control of the game between Northern and Durham City.
Upper Eden started with that narrow win over Keswick but then lost 35-10 at Morpeth. They resume at home to Consett who have a similar record to them so far with a win and a defeat, but a better points difference. Martin Denvir takes the game
Penrith head into their game at Manchester as one of four joint leaders in Regional 1 North West.
It’s a contrast to last season when the Winter’s Park side took time to adapt to the move up a level, and had to contend with a lengthy injury list.
Things are much brighter on the squad-front and two games so far against Stockport (away) and Leek (home) have brought maximum points – along with Anselmians, Rossendale and Wirral.
They now face two consecutive away trips to Manchester and newcomers Newport (Salop) which could be testing encounters.
Manchester, their hosts on Saturday, are narrowly in the minus column for points difference after a win and a loss so far. They went down 27-13 at Anselmians last week after opening with a 30-17 home win over Leek.
Penrith demolished Leek last week 69-7, which could be used as some sort of form guide, but as always it will be “on the day” and certainly the Cumbrians can go there in confident mood.
Kendal are still looking for their first points after two defeats – a 50-29 reversal at Rossendale last week had followed the opening 33-31 home defeat to Wirral.
Despite the scoreline at Rossendale it was an encouraging performance from the team, especially the younger players with Barney and Oscar Coxon, Tom Keast, and Patrick Wolstenholme, all playing well. Some great rugby names from the past there!
Ollie Rose, Steve Nelson, Dino Noyo and Barney Coxon scored the tries with Aaron Stephens converting three and adding a penalty.
On Saturday they are at home to Blackburn, who faded out of the promotion race last season after a strong start.
Well they had a shocker first match round this time, crashing 56-0 at Anselmians, getting back on track last week with a 33-24 home win over Stoke-on-Trent.
Back to Bower Park and what should concern the Aspatria club more than last Saturday’s defeat is the plight of the second team – the once-proud Eagles.
They had to concede a walk-over to Cockermouth last week, and played 10-a-side, because they hadn’t enough to make up a fifteen! Now this week they have conceded ahead of the trip to Penrith 2nds, again because of a shortage of players.
Now there is an overlap in Aspatria as lads play both league and union, and the Hornets are in a League play-off semi-final this weekend, but even so, are there not enough players to stock both clubs?
The other Counties 1 Cumbria games to go ahead are as follows: Egremont v Ambleside (Alistair Jones); Whitehaven v Creighton (Roger Moffat); Hawcoat Park v Workington (Andy Baker, Yorkshire Exchange); St. Benedict’s v Millom (Jonny Watson); Wigton v Windermere (Mike Firby); Cockermouth v Keswick 2nds (Jim Donald).
