Carlisle U16s traveled away from home last Sunday and secured a well earned win at Billingham, 19 – 34.

Carlisle were without several payers due to injuries, leaving them with on 16 players and Billingham had players away on County duty, but a very even game between two well disciplined sides was enjoyed by the spectators, in excellent conditions.

Carlisle applied the pressure from the off and within 2 minutes, from the ruck, hooker Guy Graham was let lose at the home sides defence, he offloaded to second row Harry Powel, who continued to power forward. Scrum half James Telford received and fed prop Max Graham who dropped over to score the opener. The kick from Struan Kyle only just went wide of the left post. 0 – 5.

Another 3 minutes later and a pick and go from the back of the ruck saw No.8 Cory Wilkinson drive through to secure Carlisle’s second try, which Kyle made sure of to give the visitors a 0 – 12 lead. Neither side gave up and Carlisle held the home side in their own half with some determined tackling and solid rucking, however Billingham were given space and one of their centres swiftly exploited the overlap to sprint down the right wing to score. The kick was converted. 7 – 12, anyone’s game!

Carlisle impressed at the scrum and the pack was very strong at the maul also and their varied play kept the home side guessing. A high clearance kick by Billingham was caught bravely by right winger Marc Gallimore who was having his first game following injury, from which he ran to gain vital yards. His offload pass saw the ball eventually passed through the forwards and centres to reach Guy Graham who drove down the left hand side of the pitch, to Harry Powell and a final pass out to left winger Charlie Pearson who sprinted over to score on the left. A superb team effort from one side of the pitch to the other. The kick didn’t go over, 7 – 17

Just before half time James Telford surprised the home side with a quick tap from a penalty to run over and score Carlisle’s 4th try. Kyle’s kick went over.

7 – 24 at half time.

The second half again saw great flowing rugby and apart form the odd knock, where the Carlisle coaching staff were patching up their men to allow them to keep playing, the game was clean and competitive. Half way through the half, another driving maul saw Carlisle gain valuable yards into the Billingham 22, then flanker Charles Armstrong broke free with the ball to offload to Max Graham who pushed over to score his second of the day. 7 - 29.

The home side did not give up and the scored two converted tries within a 5 minute period, to make it 19 - 29. The first came from a penalty for offside and the second from poor cover in defence as the visitors 16 man squad’s legs started to tire. With 5 mins to go the driving maul did the trick again to release Max Graham for his hat-trick.

Final score, 19 – 34. This was a great flowing game of youth rugby between two good sides. We are looking forward to hosting Billingham when they come over here in April next year.

Carlisle Rugby Club

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