Match report Carlisle v Hawcoat Park 16-12-23

With a host of former players gathering to enjoy hospitality at the club and to be entertained, there was no small amount of pressure on Carlisle to perform on home turf for the last game of the year.

Carlisle faced off into the teeth of the wind and rain, though perhaps not on the same level as Bennies last week. They immediately signalled their intention to run the ball from receiving the kick off, and drove the visitors back into their half, a forward pass signalling the end of a promising run down the left wing. It was the visitors though who were first to put points on the scoreboard 4 mins in, as they kicked deep from the scrum and flooded the Carlisle defence to get a penalty 35m out, which was duly slotted for three points.

There were no alarm bells for Carlisle as they just stuck to their processes, trying to run the ball whenever the opportunity arose. Their first points came 10 minutes later as a stolen lineout on halfway, allowed them to build field position on the Hawcoat 22m line. As they attempted to kick clear, the ball was charged down, and first spread wide left, before coming back across the line, Jason Israel fed a lovely inside pass to flanker James Brocket to go under the posts.

The second try came 7 minutes later with Carlisle attacking from deep within their own half at pace, forcing the visitors onto the backfoot. Whilst the initial attempt from a driving maul was held up on the left, a poor restart allowed Carlisle to quickly switch across the park. At the next ruck, scrum half Vince Lung took advantage of a yawning chasm in the visitors defence, to scamper through, sidestepping the last defender and go under the posts, Israel taking care of the conversion.

Hawcoat reduced that lead a few minutes later as first a speculative penalty from 45m out fell short, but a second from 30m out in front of the posts seconds later cut the deficit to 8 points.
Carlisle were beginning to exert almost complete scrum dominance at this point, yet seemed unable to capitalise on the resulting possession, a 5m scrum being a case in point which far from being converted into points, was coughed up to a penalty for the visitors, allowing them to clear out back to the half way line. They were still keen to run at the visitors which was encouraging, but despite what seemed like an eternity of a first half, couldn't get on the scoresheet again, and had to settle for a 14-6 lead at half time.

With the now strengthening wind at their backs in the second half, that wind was to prove a nightmare for the hookers at lineouts, as Hawcoat found to their cost. On 46min, a 5m lineout for Carlisle was spoiled by the visitors, and the resulting lineout for Hawcoat bounced around the visitors players, with Vince Lung being quick enough to dive on the ball as it rolled over the try line.
Carlisle had another opportunity for a try from the back of a 5m scrum a few minutes later, but somehow a Hawcoat defender got under the ball to spoil it. The drop kick from the line was held up by the wind and Carlisle again forced a 5m scrum as they drove the visitors back. This time there was no mistake as no 8 Lloyd Clark dotted down for the bonus point try,converted by Israel for a 26-6 lead.

Carlisle put the game to bed a few minutes later, when they stole a lineout on the Hawcoat 10m line. With the ball quickly passed across the line, Israel threaded a grubber kick through behind the advancing Hawcoat defenders, giving centre Robbie James the opportunity to use his football skills to dribble round the last defender and dive on the ball over the line for the final score of the game with an hour gone.

With 10min to go, Hawcoat had a period of sustained pressure within the Carlisle 22m, but were unable to convert the possession into points. Carlisle lost Captain Josh Holmes to a red card as fisticuffs broke out, and others will have been relieved not to have followed him to the bin.
It would be Carlisle who finished the game on the ascendancy, probing away at the Hawcoat tryline, but unable to finish off a 5m line out catch and drive before the referee blew for time.

Another 5 points in the bag and first place cemented at the top of the league with a 16 point lead over nearest second place side Whitehaven and just 5 games to go, only two of those at home.A home game has been a relatively rare occurrence this season due to non fulfillment of fixtures in the league, this being only the fifth game at home since September, our last one being 5 weeks previously. The patronage of the old boys was much appreciated, going some way to bridge the gap in expected revenues from homes games, which were already significantly reduced from last season.
Hopefully they weren't disappointed, though the loss of Holmes will be a blow to Carlisle as they seek to close out the last remaining games in their promotion run, with a County Cup semifinal against Aspatria on the 24th February looming too.

Our next game is away to Keswick II on the 6th January and our next home game, one of only 2 left this season in the league, is not until February 3rd, which seems an incredibly long time between home games.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you again in the New Year.