Carlisle Rugby Club's torrid start to life in North One West continued against the league leaders.

The City side lost 41-18 at home to Vale of Lune, their third defeat in four games since their promotion.

But those losses have all come against the teams which occupy first, second and third places in the table.

Carlisle, as a result, are fourth bottom, only out of the relegation zone by points differential.

They will hope to improve on that as they travel to Rochdale, a team below them with only one point from a losing bonus.

The last time Carlisle played the Vale, they had to use Silloth’s pitch because of the state of Warwick Road after the floods. It was a close affair which Carlisle won 13-12.

Unfortunately, that result was not to be repeated on Saturday as a large Vale side dominated the second half to gain a bonus point victory and remain top of the league.

The first 10 minutes were spent testing each other’s defences, although only some poor handling by Vale stopped them progressing deeper into the Carlisle half.

Carlisle’s increasing injury list got longer as prop Alex Neil succumbed to a rib injury after just 10 minutes.

Uncharacteristically, Carlisle were struggling in the scrum as a large Vale pack got the upper hand, and with penalties being conceded, the visitors were able to push up deep into the Carlisle 22.

The hosts were defending well, but when a Carlisle line-out was stolen by Vale, the ball was spread left for winger Damon Hall to beat the covering defence to score Vale’s first try.

Carlisle, though, were quick to respond. Max Connon darted over the halfway line, then Henry Wainwright carried up to the Vale 22 before the ball was spread across for centre Dan Holmes to level.

The Lancaster side got their noses in front when another penalty at a scrum was knocked over by Hall.

Carlisle ground their way back into the game, and as Connon was pushing up, a high tackle gave Carlisle both a man advantage from a yellow card, and three points from the boot of James Telford to even the scores.

Just as Carlisle were beginning to get a grip of the game, a lapse in concentration let Hall collect a kick out of defence and weave through the Carlisle defence to score.

It gave Vale a 13-8 lead at the break but any thoughts Carlisle had of being able to strike back quickly in the second half were soon nullified.

Vale used their scrum dominance to set up their full back to score a converted try after 44 minutes.

Then, their fly-half was able to secure their bonus point on 52 minutes as he dotted down under the posts.

Vale continued to pile on the pressure and two more tries put them out of sight.

Although Carlisle managed to get back into the game at the death, scoring tries from Jack Freshwater and Mark Forster, they were no more than consolation.