Carlisle edge closer to North Lancs Cumbria title after win at Bolton

They were clear winners of the hardest match of their remaining fixtures and Bolton proved good opponents, but always struggled against Carlisle’s mobile pack.

Carlisle had the best of the opening exchanges and a break by lock James Brocket saw him slip the ball to skipper Tom Graham who hared through to score under the posts. James Telford converted.

On 12 minutes, Carlisle scored again after breaking out of defence through a mazy run from winger Ben Purdham. Tom Fuller’s cross kick was chased and collected by full-back Robbie James who scored in the corner. Telford converted.

A penalty for crossing gave Bolton their first points of the day after 25 minutes and it was still 14-3 at half-time.

Carlisle stepped up the tempo in the second half and second row Brocket was responsible for setting up the third try on 43 minutes. He drove through the Bolton defence to within five metres before offloading to Purdham.

Although he was held up trying to get across the whitewash, fly-half Jason Israel was in close support and took the offload to score in the left corner.

As the game started to loosen up, Bolton responded with a well-worked try on 52 minutes from a line-out on the left in Carlisle’s 22. They spun the ball wide right to score in the corner.

It didn’t take long for Carlisle to score again. A storming run from No.8 Josh Holmes through the middle of the Bolton defence created gaps in the home defence. With the ball quickly spread wide, winger Purdham exploited one of them for the bonus-point try.

Just over the hour mark, Carlisle scored their fifth of the day after a lot of forward possession in the Bolton 22. Replacement flanker Lee Brumpton was put in space to crash through the last two defenders.

Bolton would have the last score of the game right at the end, but the match was gone by then and Carlisle were home and dry.

Wigton produced their poorest home performance of the season to lose 29-20 to a Trafford side who finished the game with more determination, scoring their final try while they were reduced to 13 men.

Wigton’s defence was in a charitable mood, although Trafford’s three quarter line ran with great purpose and their support runners worked hard to cover ground.

Wigton had scored first when fly-half David Hanabury cut through the defence to touchdown and Ryan Clark converted.

Scrum-half Pat Eccles saw a penalty attempt come back off the post and, shortly afterwards at the other end, Clark extended Wigton’s lead with a successful penalty.

It was not long before Trafford showed potency in their backs when, from a line-out, the ball was moved to outside centre Andrew Moore. He ran through a tackler and had a simple run to the line for an unconverted try.

After some Wigton pressure, the clearance kick was fielded by winger Kieran Miller, who made good progress. Prop Peter Dobson took the ball and attacked the right side of the ruck.

Quick ball was switched back to the left where Wigton had the advantage of numbers with Oliver Lewis going over.

In response, Trafford put together several phases of play in which they were patient and retained the ball well. Eventually, their patience paid off and the ball was passed wide to the left where the Wigton defence had lost its shape.

After an initial line break, No.8 Danny Burke was on hand to take the scoring pass. Eccles added the conversion.

In what was becoming a real see-saw contest, a Wigton drive went over the line but the forwards were unable to get the ball down as the referee blew for half-time.

Wigton started the second half well with more line-out work seeing the ball driven to the line before number eight Stuart Creighton broke away to score for a 20-12 lead.

Back came Trafford and an unconverted try from centre Matt Coxon meant there were only three points in it.

Then second-row Andrew Burke took advantage of some poor Wigton tackling to gallop through the defence and score a fine individual try which was converted.

Wigton trailed by four but were handed the advantage when Trafford received two yellow cards and it was 15 against 13.

But Wigton hadn’t just switched off and gone to sleep, they were in deep hibernation and the final score of the game went to Trafford.

Flanker Andrew Quigley picked up the ball at a ruck and ran straight through the middle of it in the place where defenders were meant to be. He surged into the 22 and offloaded from the tackle to Burke who scored the decisive try.

The bottom two Cumbrian sides both suffered heavy defeats. Workington crashed 99-12 to second-placed De La Salle while Silloth were beaten 68-7 at Fleetwood.