It's not often a side concedes 66 points and loses by a margin of 31 and everyone connected to that side is pleased with their performance but that was the case on Saturday at Winters Park. They were up against a Rossendale team gathered up at no little cost from all over the world, they are a collection of very good players and boy don't they know it. They may be an extremely good side but they are not a very pleasant one.
Penrith had conceded over a 100 points in the reverse fixture back in October and after the visitors opened up in awesome style and were 19 points up after ten minutes a repeat looked on the cards. The Cumbrians rallied though, perhaps nettled by some of the opposition back chat and got right back in the game. A mazy run down the left by Jay Rossi got them into the danger area and when the ball came right stand off Nick Dudson squeezed in a grubber kick to the corner and Rob Coward won the chase for the touch down. Coward had his kicking boots on and knocked the conversion over from the touchline, he was also successful with all five conversion attempts, four being wide out.
The visitors were most dangerous in broken play and then scored another two tries, the first running back a clearance kick and the next from a turnover, the fullback in particular was outstanding and once in space and at pace he took some handling.
Penrith trailed 31-7 but heads never went down and they were next to score, they kicked a penalty to the corner and won the lineout and were only stopped by the visitors infringing. The ball was put into touch at the corner again, Ben Higgens took the lineout ball from Lee Chapman's accurate throw and from the driven maul Dylan Thompson was stopped just short and Adam Howe crashed over.
The home side scored the next try, Dudson fielded a clearance kick on the right and the ball was moved wide left, Josh Dowson took it and stepped the defender at pace and made ground before putting Rossi away on the wing and he outran the last defender for the third try.
The visitors scored two smart tries from lineouts before the break and led 45-21, Penrith didn't look like coming back to claim the win but a four try bonus point was in their sights. They had their fourth try five minutes into the second half, a penalty to the corner saw Thompson claim the ball. The driven maul was broken up just short of the line and the home forwards made a series of drives for the line, they kept turning the screw and it was George Graham who eventually came up with the valuable try.
The Cumbrians conceded three tries in the remainder of the second half but managed a fifth of their own. Coward got them into the red zone with a break out of his own half and a kick ahead into the 22. The scrambling Rossendale defence were penalised and Graham took a quick tap and got his forwards within striking distance of the line. Their persistence eventually paid off and it was Andy Rogers who finally got over for the score.
The whole Penrith side could not be faulted for their efforts, there had been a number of changes to the side from the previous week but they had stuck to their task for the full 80 minutes. They had got the bonus point they richly deserved which was probably the best they could hope for and they could take some credit from the fact that only one side has registered more points in a game against Rossendale, that was Macclesfield who are level with them on points at the top of the table and they managed only one point more, 36.
It will be a completely different scenario this week as Penrith travel to Leek who are in the scrap with them at the bottom, they won at Winters Park 27-21 earlier in the season but David Preston will now be looking for his side to turn the tables on them and register an away win. In every game to press in the second half of the season Penrith have done better than they did in the initial fixture, be it home or away, so they hope to be able to continue in this vein.