Carlisle Rugby Club helped ease their North One West relegation fears with an excellent 25-14 victory against Douglas (IOM).

It’s been an interrupted period for Carlisle, having only played one game in five weeks. Saturday’s opposition were likely to prove a much sterner test than their last game two weeks ago at Manchester.

Yet hopes were high, given the manner of their win in Manchester and that their last game against Douglas was a close affair, narrowly losing by four points.

Carlisle started as if they meant business and some surging runs deep into the opposition half kept the visitors on their toes, with fly-half Max Connon proving to be a handful.

Indeed, it would be Connon who opened the scoring after 13 minutes when Douglas committed a penalty in front of the posts, which he converted.

Carlisle attacked the restart with vigour, and as the Douglas scrum-half was trying to box-kick from the back of a ruck, centre Ben Purdham charged the kick down to gain possession.

Passing to flanker Angus Fulton, he made a barnstorming run down the left, giving a Sonny Bill to a grateful full-back Andy Glendinning who raced in for Carlisle’s first try of the day.

Carlisle then had to defend well as Douglas made a series of probing runs, without really threatening the home try line.

The home side were able to mop up those attacks and set-up a series of counter-attacks which eventually saw Carlisle secure further points.

From a series of scrums down in the left-hand corner, No.8 Lee Brumpton picked and dived over twice, his second attempt being rewarded with a try.

Then, just at the end of the half, Brumpton demonstrated his formidable footballing skills by deftly threading a grubber kick off the side of his boot through two defenders for winger Shaw Lorimer-Bell to steal the ball from the last defender and cross for the third try at the stroke of half-time.

Going into half-time with an 18-0 lead must have been more than Carlisle dared dream of, yet they were well worth the lead.

However, the second half didn’t see the same level of intensity, and Carlisle seemed to lose a little focus in the first 20 minutes of the second half.

Douglas were eventually rewarded for their persistence, with two well-worked tries within a few minutes to close the score to 18-14 and cause a few hearts to flutter amongst the home support.

Having weathered a number of probing runs at their defence, eventually Carlisle were able to clear their lines, and build momentum and gain territory to get back into the visitors half.

A searching kick through short of the Douglas try line left the Douglas defender in all sorts of trouble, conceding a five-metre scrum as he was hauled over the line.

With barely a few minutes on the clock left, it could have been so easy for Carlisle to simply hang on to possession and run the clock down.

However they kept their heads, and after a series of pick and goes sucked the visitors defence in, the ball was swung right to put winger Robbie James into space.

With close support from centre Dan Holmes, and despite the efforts of two Douglas defenders, he managed to twist and turn his way across the try line to score the bonus-point try with the last play of the game.

This was an utterly absorbing game played by two teams determined to use the conditions to best effect, producing a spectacle that rewarded those who had turned up to watch.

The fact that Carlisle came away with five points made it all the better, and gives their push to remain in North One West a welcome boost.

Performances like this will go a long way to achieving that.

Captain Tom Graham said: “This was a much-needed result and, all-round, a better performance.

“Our first-half display was the best we have played in a long time, but our second half has left a few questions to answer.

“The team will continue to put the efforts in and secure our status in this league. Here’s to next week.

“Due to the weather, there is a full league programme on Easter Saturday, and we entertain Blackburn.

"Always a difficult side to play, and currently in second place, we’ll need to be at the top of our game to stop them from taking anything away from Warwick Road.”