Carlisle Rugby Club and Altrincham Kersal battle to draw in North One West

It leaves the Cumbrians needing two points from their last two games to be sure of avoiding relegation.

The city side are involved in a three-way battle with Manchester and Altrincham Kersal to avoid the final drop zone place, and join Rochdale and St Benedict’s through the trap door.

There was too much riding on this match for it to be anything other than a nervy, tight affair with little between the two sides.

The mathematicians were out in force, calculating every scenario, but really the maths was simple.

Win and Carlisle retained league status, and left Manchester and Altrincham to fight out the last relegation spot.

Lose and it would probably go to the last game of the season. Nobody really considered the draw option.

Carlisle had an early penalty opportunity, but Max Connon’s kick went wide. Carlisle kept up the pressure and, just as they were surging forward, a bout of handbags inside Kersal’s 22 left both sides short of a player.

From the resulting scrum, another penalty gave Connon an easier opportunity to put the first points on the board for Carlisle after 30 minutes.

The visitors lost another player to the bin for a high tackle, yet Carlisle were unable to capitalise on the extra man.

In fact, it was Altrincham who finished the half the stronger and Carlisle coughed up an easy penalty opportunity for the visitors in front of the posts for the game to finish 3-3 at the break.

They carried that momentum into the second half and, within six minutes, had gone into the lead from a second penalty after Carlisle infringed at the breakdown.

The scores were levelled four minutes later as Connon converted another easy three-pointer.

Both sides had opportunities and possession, but the respective defences worked hard to cancel each other out.

It was Carlisle who broke the deadlock after the hour-mark.

A break and kick chase down the right wing by Robbie James forced the Altrincham defender to knock-on under extreme pressure from the Carlisle attack.

Carlisle then had the opportunity to exert the scrum dominance that they’d had for most of the game.

Scrumming two penalty opportunities in the right corner, Angus Fulton was unlucky not to score on the second attempt, as the ball bobbled off the back of a foot just as he was about to dot down, causing him to knock on.

However, Carlisle again shoved the visitors backwards at speed, and the referee binned the visitors loose-head.

The home side can feel more than a little aggrieved that they got nothing out of this period, since that forced the game into uncontested scrums, nullifying an important part of Carlisle’s game.

The Carlisle side eventually used the extra man to swing possession across the park, and despite some desperate defending on the line by the visitors, Lee Brumpton squeezed over to put Carlisle into the lead with six minutes to go.

The visitors then threw everything at Carlisle, looking for a way back into the game.

With no time on the clock, but with a penalty in front of the posts in the bag, the Kersal fly-half floated a cross-field kick to the right winger, who managed to squeeze past the Carlisle defender to score in the right-hand corner, levelling the match to the delight of the travelling support.

A successful conversion would have won it for the visitors but it was a difficult kick and the game ended all square.