Carlisle Rugby Club made a solid start to the season, claiming a 50-19 victory at De La Salle.

With a couple of minutes gone, the hosts had the chance to take three points with a penalty pushed just wide.

But they grabbed the first try as a line-out on the Carlisle 22 gave the Della fly-half an opportunity for a cross-field kick to the right winger to go over in the corner.

Five minutes later, a break by winger Greg Baines took Carlisle deep into the home 22. Although Matt Shields was held up as he tried to smash his way through the Della defence, from the resulting scrum, centre Chris Auld managed to burrow his way over for Carlisle’s first, converted by fly-half Max Connon.

With Della down to 14 men, the visitors should have been in the driving seat, yet counted themselves lucky the Della back knocked on collecting a ball that would surely have given Della their second try.

Instead, as Carlisle broke out of defence from the resulting scrum, it was full-back Shaw Lorimer-Bell that powered over for Carlisle’s second try, picking up dead leg in the process. Minutes later, the Carlisle pack powered over from a 5m scrum for Shields to score the third try.

And Carlisle secured the bonus-point with the last play of the half as winger Baines evaded the last defender to grab the fourth try and end the half 22-5 in front.

Carlisle started the second half where they left off when centre Dan Holmes chased a kick through and beat the Della defender, to grab the fifth try with just a minute gone in the second half.

Della then had a period of sustained possession as Carlisle had to be on their mettle to keep the home side at bay. But 15 minutes after the restart, a kick threaded through the Della defence allowed Auld the chance to grab his second try and Carlisle’s sixth.

Della’s persistence was rewarded with a second try on the hour mark.

Connon then grabbed a cheeky try, taking a quick tap penalty to catch everyone on the park napping to go under the posts for Carlisle.

Della then grabbed the try of the game as they ran the ball out from an almost impossible position in their dead ball area to go the length of the field.

They ran out of time though and, in looking for a fourth try and a bonus-point, gave captain Henry Wainwright the chance to extend the lead further with the last play of the game.

Player-coach Shields was pleased with the performance, but reflected that Carlisle missed three or four try-scoring opportunities that in a tighter game could have proved crucial, so there is still some work to do on the training ground.

Penrith fell to a 50-36 loss to Stockport.

The Penrith players had been bitterly disappointed at not being able to start the season on the newly-completed artificial surface at Winters Park, instead playing on the second-team pitch.

Whether it was this fact that was responsible for their below-par start to the game or the fact that Stockport were a big, strong, mobile outfit doesn’t matter. Penrith were caught cold in the first quarter and weren’t at the races.

Stockport were two tries to the good and 12 points up after five minutes, an unnecessary penalty allowed them to kick to the corner for an attacking line-out and a practiced catch and drive earned them their first score.

They then put the ball through the phases when they took the restart and scored far too easily without the home team touching the ball.

Penrith then did get a little bit of possession and had Brad Taylor over in the corner but were brought back for a knock on.

They then looked like scoring and had three line-outs close to the visitors’ in quick succession but lost the ball in the opposition 22 and allowed the Stockport backs the freedom to score from virtually their own line with the turnover ball.

The Cumbrians were then staring down the barrel when at least five tacklers missed the visitors’ full-back as he danced through them to set up the fourth try to leave Penrith 24 points down in as many minutes.

A bit of sanity then reigned as the home side managed to hold on to the ball for longer periods and string together some phases of decent rugby. From this, Ed Swale and Jay Rossi managed to combine to set Jamie McNaughton away for their opening score. Matt Allinson hit a decent conversion but hope didn’t last long as Penrith immediately conceded a fifth try.

Just before half-time, Penrith did create a nice try.

McNaughton came off his wing to break the defensive line and then fed the ball back inside to Swale who went in under the posts, as they turned around they faced a mammoth task, trailing 29-14.

Penrith did start the second half much brighter but were then their own worst enemy, conceding a penalty to allow the visitors to kick to the corner and set-up their second try from the catch and drive at the line-out.

Stockport then secured the restart, played possession rugby, went through the phases and scored a seventh try, with half an hour to go and 29 points up it looked as if it could be a real cricket score.

The Penrith heads did not go down, though.

McNaughton scored his second try wide out after the ball was spun wide from a line-out deep in the visitors’ 22 and Allinson converted off the touchline.

Penrith were down to 14 when Josh Dowson was yellow carded on his own line and, from the ensuing 5m scrum, the Stockport back-row muscled their way over in the corner. But Penrith continued to battle away.

Rossi was in possession wide out and ignored the winger outside him on the overlap and cut inside the last man to score the fourth and bonus-point try.

Olly May was then found enough space down the right to show his pace and took his try well, going over in the corner.

The home side had the final word, though, and Dowson found a gap close to the line and got himself over.