Penrith won their second away game in succession and further eased their relegation worries but it was a close run affair. They were pretty average for an hour and in the final quarter were quite outstanding winning the game in the last play of the game on the back of pure dogged determination.
The first half hour was end to end stuff with the lead changing five times, Leek were awarded a penalty from the kick off for a very early lead, Josh Dowson then won the ball from the restart and the visitors went through the phases before a Ben Higgens charge took play into the 22. A half break by George Graham was latched onto by Jay Rossi who played the ball out of contact to Matty Boustead who had a simple run in. Rob Coward, who had a near perfect afternoon with the boot missing one kick out of seven, hit the conversion.
The home side almost immediately retook the lead when, from a lineout, they released one of their big second row forwards in the centres, at pace he burst through the first defensive line and two phases later they scored their first try. The kicker lined up the conversion and Coward saw movement and set off to charge the kick down, the kicker never moved and Coward whipped the ball off the kicking tee. The referee agreed with him and the game restarted with no two points to add to the try and the home side led 8-7. At the death those points would prove to be pivotal.
Coward then gave his side the lead with a nicely struck penalty from 30m and then strong running from the pack by Sam Wilson and Adam Howe in particular got play within two yards of the line, Dowson seized his opportunity and powered over from the base of the ruck just inches off the ground.
It was then the home side's turn to dominate as the visitors seemed to stand off them and allow their runners time to get a head of steam up and their bigger backs caused a bit of havoc. They scored a nicely worked converted try and then a slip up in the Penrith backs saw a pass intercepted and the home three-quarter was away. Nick Dudson did well to run him down and the score was in the corner rather than under the posts and went unconverted, a loss of another valuable two points.
That eased the home side back into the lead 20-17 and then they struck either side of half time, both from lineouts in the Cumbrians' 22 from raking kicks from their own half giving them the throw to the line. They now led 34-17 with double the visitors' points and things were starting to look a bit bleak for the men from Penrith.
Spirits were briefly lifted when they opted for a scrum when a penalty was awarded 10m out, Wilson broke from No8, fed Graham who took the contact and got the ball away to Brad Taylor who claimed the try. Coward missed his only conversion when taking as much time as possible to eek out the final seconds of Chris Jackson's yellow card to get him back on the pitch. Joy was short lived as the Leek scrum half broke clear, chipped the full back cleverly and won the chase for the touch down and the home side led by 19 going into the final quarter.
Penrith looked to have some consolation when Graham ran a penalty and got play to the home line and Ryan Banks used all his strength to crash over for the fourth and bonus point try. Another try would get them into losing bonus point territory and the chance arrived when the home side were penalised and then walked back another 10m for backchat. The penalty was kicked to the corner and the lineout was won. The visiting forwards inched the maul forward to just short of the line and Graham saw his chance and sniped down the side of the collapsed maul to score. Coward's conversion moved Penrith to within five points but there was less than five minutes on the clock plus the referee's add-ons.
Penrith conceded a penalty and the home side won a lineout on half way, they were penalised again and the penalty was being kicked to the corner deep in the 22 and Penrith's losing bonus point was looking in danger. The kick didn't make touch and was fielded by Ross Jackson who launched an attack from his own line, 12 minutes later Penrith would win the game after more than 30 phases of play where they retained possession, made no mistakes showing no little skill, determination and bloody mindedness.
They got play to half way and the home side infringed so they ran the ball, this time they got all the way to the line and over it but Andy Rogers was adjudged to be held up. Leek then had a drop out off their own line, the only time they had the ball in the final 12 minutes and they hit it straight to Graham. Penrith fought their way back into the 22 and Leek were penalised again. Again they tapped it and ran and closed in on the line, again the home side were penalised and again it was tapped and the visitors were camped on the line. Again and again Scott Lancaster, Howe, Rogers, Wilson and the rest threw themselves at the line and the home defence was resolute but something had to give, would the visitors make the mistake to end the game now almost 10 minutes into overtime or would they find the score. An extremely battered Graham eventually squeezed over for the vital score and the focus shifted to Coward to turn 41-41 into a win.
The try was half way to the corner flag so the kick was no gimme, he settled himself and struck it sweetly, dissected the posts and the Cumbrians had a win that looked highly unlikely 20 minutes earlier. Their never say die attitude paid off and there were great celebrations. Leek were gutted just the same as Penrith were a fortnight before when they lost in the final play to Wirral. Like Penrith they had the consolation of two bonus points which they richly deserved.