Penrith Rugby Club can help Carlisle celebrate winning the North One West title tomorrow.

Mind you, that will be the last thing on Penrith’s minds as a win over Blackburn is of equal importance to them as it will virtually make sure they stay in the division next season.

While Carlisle are looking to hold off Blackburn to clinch the championship, with just the league's whipping boys De La Salle left to play next Saturday after this weekend's match, Penrith are still involved in a relegation dogfight with up to seven clubs still not certain of avoiding the drop.

Of course Carlisle have to play their part, as well, with a win at Firwood Waterloo which will retain the five-point lead they have over Blackburn.

Penrith are only three points clear of the last relegation place. 

Blackburn are five points behind Carlisle and will be looking for maximum points because the league leaders still have an ace in the hole as they play the basement boys at Warwick Road in the final game of the season.

The Salford side have only won two games so far and have conceded 901 points, going down 97-0 at Blackburn last week.

The odds are very much in Carlisle’s favour, although Firwood Waterloo will not be lambs to the slaughter as they still need points to help them escape the drop.

They are only two points above the relegation trapdoor, which means they are one point behind Penrith.

To add more spice to the season’s climax, Penrith will finish off next week at Stockport who are level on points with Burnage, the side currently occupying the final relegation place.

Burnage have a tough game on the Isle of Man tomorrow against Douglas while Stockport will expect to pick up points at De La Salle.

Carlisle had edged closer to the North One West title with a 27-21 win over Manchester at Warwick Road on Saturday.

It was a determined effort as they had to make several changes with neither of the Connon brothers, Max and Grant, available and club captain Tom Graham pulling out at the last minute through illness.

They led 14-7 at half-time through tries by player-coach Matty Shields and James Telford, both converted by Telford.

They extended that to 24-7 through Telford’s second try, his conversion and a penalty but Manchester rallied and two converted tries brought them back to within three points.

It needed a late penalty from Telford to give an extra cushion which they held until the end.

Penrith were extremely disappointed to lose 36-26 at Burnage.

They had managed a four-try bonus-point but couldn’t get the odd score at the end that would have given them a losing bonus-point, so they are left with work to do in the final two weeks of the league season.

It was 29-19 at half-time and in an even second half, when Penrith had the better chances, each side could manage to score only one more try. 

George Graham, Dan Richardson (2) and Brad Taylor scored the Penrith tries.

Keswick are chasing a double after winning the Cumbria League to earn promotion.

At the weekend, they reached the semi-final of the Cumbria League Cup by beating Upper Eden 29-10 at Davidson Park.

It has given them a home tie in the semi-final tomorrow against Cockermouth.

Despite finishing in the bottom-half of the initial table, Upper Eden proved to be a handful, with their young backs proving particularly threatening in attack and defending well.

Keswick had established a 17-5 lead by half-time with tries from Ryan Weir (2) and Jamie McKenzie, only one converted by Andy Muir.

Josh Graves and Jake Winter scored second-half tries for Keswick with the last one converted by Lewis Thompson.

Interestingly, with the A team at home on the same day, both Winter and Thompson had played for the 2nd XV and scored, before coming on as replacements for the first-team – and scoring again.

Wigton coach Andy Brown has managed to arrange two home matches in an attempt to boost the club’s end-of-season programme.

The first-team have an attractive friendly with Annan on April 20 and, a week later, will take on what is being described as an Invitation Legends XV – details to be announced later.

There should be a full programme of matches in Cumbria League Two as the clubs near the end of the season.

Silloth have finished top, ahead of Workington but just exactly where they will be playing next season is still to be decided.