Carlisle eventually overcame a defiant Workington side to claim another bonus point win at home.

The 38-5 victory took the city side to the top of the North Lancs Cumbria table but left the Zebras joint bottom.

Although Carlisle had some early possession in the first half, they were unable to convert that into points. The Warwick Road side failed to translate dominance at the scrum into any reward on the scoreboard.

It was Workington who threw everything at Carlisle in the middle 20 minutes and were denied from opening the scoring only through some resolute defence by the home side.

It took Carlisle half an hour before they managed to breach the Workington defence, as they used their superior forward power in a catch and drive from a line out, to drive over second row forward Rory Parish. The opening try was converted from the touchline by Jason Israel.

As Carlisle used their scrum dominance to full effect to drive Workington backwards, a penalty infringement allowed Israel to put another three points on the board, and left the half-time score at 10-0.

Carlisle started with a little more purpose in the second half. A couple of good breaks from Josh Holmes and Henry Wainwright gave Carlisle territorial advantage and, with Workington struggling to cover, the ball was fed to Guy Graham who brushed aside the Workington full-back to score under the posts.

Tries started to come thick and fast and from the restart, Carlisle ran the ball back at Workington. Josh Holmes put Wainwright through as he evaded the clutches of the Workington defence to score in the left corner.

Workington gamely refused to roll over and from a break down the left, the kick into the right corner saw winger Rob Hodgson collect and score what would be the visitors’ only try.

Almost immediately, Carlisle responded and from the back of a maul in Workington’s 22, fly half James Telford rounded the Zebras’ defence to score under the posts for the bonus point try.

Workington were desperate to salvage something from this game and put another fine spell of sustained pressure on Carlisle, pinning them in their 22.

However, Carlisle were able to keep their defence solid, and from a turnover ball, a break by Guy Graham down the left caught Workington’s defence too thinly spread, and he was able to put winger Neil McGill in space to race in for the final try of the game.

In a cracking game at Lowmoor Road, Wigton beat Hawcoat Park 42-26.

A very entertaining game was contested by two powerful teams with Gregg Smith being the outstanding player for Wigton.

Early pressure from Wigton brought an infringement by a Hawcoat Park player giving Gregg Smith an early penalty which he duly converted and he added a second after 12 minutes.

On 20 minutes, a missed pass by the Hawcoat Park defence allowed Richard Moffat to kick through. When the visitors’ full back miscued the ball, Moffatt continued his run to touch down for Wigton’s first try which Smith converted.

Hawcoat Park then had a spell when they saw plenty of the ball and, from a good passage of play, a two on one situation enabled them to get their first unconverted try on the board.

On 36 minutes, a pass across the back line by Smith was cleverly picked up by captain David Hanabury who glided along the touch-line, beating a couple of defenders along the way, to touch down for Wigton’s second try and an 18-5 lead at the break.

Within a minute of the second half starting, Smith and Hanabury had opened up the Hawcoat Park defence before offloading to Moffatt who scored his second try under the posts. Smith converted.

Wigton kept going forward and more great handling along the back line gave Moffatt the chance to offload the ball to Smith to touchdown and give Wigton their bonus point try. Smith converted.

Wigton continued to press forward and with the dominance of the scrum allowing the backs plenty of ball, only a couple of dropped passes in the Hawcoat Park 22 prevented Wigton from increasing their lead.

On 62 minutes, an offside decision gave Smith a straightforward penalty to move the score onto 35-5.

However, Hawcoat Park were not lying down and recent high scoring performances have seen them climb to sixth place in the league and two converted tries on 71 and 75 minutes reduced the arrears to 35-19.

With a couple of minutes left to play, Wigton regained composure and a great offload by Stuart Creighton gave Smith his second try and Wigton’s fifth under the posts, Smith duly converted.

Even at this late stage, Hawcoat Park seized their chance to score a bonus point and with a series of pick and goes, the forwards crossed the line for a fourth try, which was converted.