RUGBY UNION By John Walsh

Last updated 05:14, Friday, 21 November 2008

THERE’S a change of routine for Aspatria ahead of their big county derby tomorrow against Penrith.

The Black Reds will be training tonight – dispensing with the usual Thursday night session in a bid to have the players completely focused for the North Two East clash with their county rivals.

Chairman of rugby Mark Richardson said: “We decided to change things round this week. It’s a big game for us and we wanted to have the players completely focused on the game.

“We’ll see how it goes. “If the players go into the game with the same attitude they showed at Old Crossleyans last week then we’ll be fine. We lost but the Halifax side went top with that win and couldn’t get over how well we had defended throughout the game.

“I don’t think there will be a lot of attacking, open rugby played and that’s likely to be dictated by the conditions.

“Penrith have some very good backs with players like Steven Wood, Martin Armstrong and Paul Newton and I’d like to think we might have the edge in the forwards.”

Lee Tinnion, Dan Rayson and Richard Holliday, who all missed last week’s game, are back in contention for the back division with Richard Miller added to the forwards.

Missing out, however, will; be stand out forward Gary Hodgson who is starting a two match ban.

Aspatria lost 22-13 at Old Crossleyans after leading 13-6 at half-time, but the game ended with just one try apiece and it was three late penalties which carried the home side clear. Player coach Mike Scott scored all his side’s points from two penalties, a try and a conversion.

Penrith will come into the game on a high, beating previous leaders Billingham for the second time in a month. The 17-12 win at Winters Park enabled them to go past their opponents in second on points’ differential but two points adrift of Old Crossleyans.

Steven Wood scored a try, landed a penalty and kicked two conversions, the first to a penalty try awarded when Joe Nattrass was pulled back.

Penrith have one or two niggling injuries so still have to finalise their squad for the trip to Bower Park.

Carlisle followed-up their derby win at Penrith with a second successive North Two East victory by 26-21 at Pontefract. The home pack gave the Warwick Road men a much sterner test than did Penrith, and they had to work hard for their victory.

Lee Brumpton and Glen Weightman scored tries in the first-half on their way to an 18-8 lead with Weightman adding two penalties and a conversion. After the break Pontefract put the Carlisle defence under severe pressure for a period and within a couple of minutes had reduced the arrears with a converted try.

Skipper and prop Steve Stamper eased the worry to a degree when he touched down after a huge onslaught on the Pontefract line.

Weightman landed another penalty to take the advantage at that point to 26-18 with just less than quarter of an hour remaining but all Pontefract could manage was one more penalty.

After such a good win it was important that Carlisle could say “same again” and that’s exactly what coach Richard Metcalf has been able to do for the home clash with Sandal.

The opposition have a good 37-10 home win over Driffield last week and are currently three points better off than the city side.

There’s a big game at Lowmoor Road tomorrow in North Lancs Cumbria where Wigton take-on leaders Vale of Lune who are putting a 100 per cent record on the line.

Wigton coach Malcolm Brown spent four years at Vale of Lune in the 80’s when the Lancaster side had climbed into the top 20 in English rugby.

“We had seven or eight Cumbrians playing then and I remember one season playing Harlequins, Wasps and London Irish. The club has obviously gone back since those days, and is probably now at its lowest point but it appears to be making a big effort to make progress again.

“They have won every League game so far and clearly have some talented players so it’s going to be a tough one for us.

“We are going to make it something of a reunion day off the field because five of the county guys who played for Vale in the 80’s are coming along – Kenny Graham, Les Dent, Paul Hancock, Ian Sewell and Sam Hodgson.

Wigton had a good 31-16 win at Upper Eden last week and have David Warwick, Stuart Creighton and John Story all available again to add to the squad on duty at Kirkby Stephen. Chris Pattinson (2), Matthew Atkinson, Tane Manihera and man of the Match Andy Brown scored Wigton’s tries with Andrew Logue converting three.

Last week Vale of Lune were 29-6 home winners over Workington, so Wigton do have a recent local yard-stick to go by.

Keswick are now bottom of the League after losing 25-3 to Kirkby Lonsdale, the nearest challengers to 100 per cent leaders Vale of Lune.

But Keswick had opened the better and for 20 minutes were the dominant force although they only had a Mark Ireland penalty to show for it.

He hit the post with another penalty and was just inches wide with a further attempt as Kirkby Lonsdale regularly infringed.

Gradually the home side did make some headway and scored two tries before half-time, adding a third soon after the restart to win well.

Keswick were pinned back for long periods in the second half and although they showed nothing in attack worked exceptionally well in defence.

Tomorrow they will be l oking to get off the bottom with a home win against Upper Eden who are a point and a place better off in the table, but have played a match more. In the Cumbria League Creighton entertain Workington Steelers and have an opportunity to get back to winning ways after a series of defeats which included last week’s 41-14 defeat at Wigton Wanderers.

The Wanderers go to Cockermouth while Aspatria Eagles entertain League leaders Whitehaven.