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 twenty minutes and were denied from opening the scoring only through some resolute defence by the home side.

In fact 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 a 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.