With both sides having to make changes through injuries and players being unavailable, this was always going to be a test of which side could maintain their recent form.

Carlisle started brightly by probing the Wigton defence for weaknesses. Wigton responded through a break down the right, and with the ball swung wide the visitors were caught offside at a breakdown giving Wigton the opportunity for points. Wigton were unable to capitalise with the penalty attempt, giving Carlisle the chance to restart from their 22. Both sides continued to test each others defence for the next 10 mins without managing to break into either’s 22m. Each side were trying to use the width of the pitch to get round the opposition defences, but handling errors from both sides interrupted the flow of the game.

From one Carlisle knock on, on the half way line, from the resulting the scrum, the Wigton 8 picked up and fed their fly half who went down the blindside. With the visitors defence not reacting quickly enough, Wigton had numbers in support to put Aron Henderson in for the first score of the game to Wigton.
Carlisle maintained the pressure on Wigton, keeping them pinned in their own half for most of the rest of the half as they continued to probe the home defence for weaknesses. Carlisle had a couple of penalty opportunities, but fly half James Telford was unable to convert.

From one probe down the right, Carlisle won a line out on the Wigton 22. The resulting catch and drive 10metres down the park, gave Carlisle an opportunity to move the ball wide. Although winger Ben Purdham was initially foiled as he moved left, he was quick enough to get away from the resulting ruck in the centre of the park. By switching right to where Wigton had not enough numbers he was on the end of a pop pass from no 8 Lee Brumpton, going down the outside for Carlisle’s first score of the day.
The half was to end honours even in points at 5-5, but with Carlisle having the lions share of possession although the Wigton defence was holding firm.

The second half began like the first with both sides trying to find a way through each others defences, but not getting much further than 10m either side of the centre line. However from one such probe, Carlisle were awarded a scrum on the left, and in almost a copy of the Wigton score in the first half, Guy Graham exploited a weakness down the blindside and a neat interchange with winger Luke Davidson put replacement no 8 Josh Holmes in for Carlisle’s second try.

The third try came 10mins later from a scrum on the Wigton 22, from which Carlisle moved the ball across the park and back again a couple of times, keeping the Wigton defence busy. As the ball was moved left, Carlisle eventually had superior numbers to drive centre Dan Holmes over the line on the hour mark, converted by Telford.

Although Wigton tried to get back into the game,they were unable to convert any of the increase in possession into points as Carlisle defended their 22 solidly for the rest of the half, closing out the game as worthy winners of this Cumbria Cup match.

Head Coach David Stout commented later " This was always going to be a hard fought game so it came as no shock that Wigton really turned up. Mark Hill has done a good job there. Pleasingly our tenacity and belief came to the fore with the set piece and direct running acting as the backbone to achieving another good win. Despite the recent successes we still have plenty to work on to succeed in the league and cup programs, so improvement remains high on the agenda"

Captain Tom Graham added "A game away from the league structure but still as important. A local derby game for the next stage in the cup. It was a physical encounter in which defence was on top, a game with not a huge display of rugby but a lot of character. Just makes the encounter in 2 weeks even more exciting. Happy to progress to the next stage in which we will test ourselves against Penrith who are playing with a lot of confidence and are flying high in the league above. I can't wait."

With some new faces and some returning old ones, there was always the chance that this would disrupt the flow of the side. However all fitted in with ease which bodes well for the run in to the closing stages of the league campaign.

This restarts next week with a home match against Upper Eden. Carlisle will be hoping for a better performance than their earlier encounter in the season, when Upper Eden pushed them all the way to the end. At this stage of the season all matches become must wins to maintain the distance between their nearest rivals De La Salle and Aspatria. All are welcome to come along to Warwick Road to support the players as they push on with their league campaign.