Penrith under 12`s host Kirkby Lonsdale

Sunday 2nd November 2014
Penrith u12`s v Kirkby Lonsdale and Egremont.
Team: Jacob Batey, Oliver Bibby, Harry Chambers, Luke Coggins, Declan Devaney (Capt) Llewelyn Giggs, Tom Hill (man of the match), Jonny Hope, Elliot Judge, Samuel Nelson, Bailey Potts, Connor Robinson, Liam Scott, , Mathew Thompson, Andy Walsh, Thomas Wear, Adam Wilson.
Penrith under 12`s played host to teams from Kirkby Lonsdale and Egremont on Sunday 2nd November.
The home team played Kirkby Lonsdale first with Kirkby kicking proceedings off. Jonny Hope cleanly took the ball and the ball was passed to Jacob Batey who made good forward progress before being tackled. Positive rucking by Penrith kept the ball alive, allowing Tom Hill to drive through several of the opposition to score Penrith`s first try.
The next period of play saw some good running from Liam Scott before being tackled. Bailey Potts took up the ball and with Penrith continuing to Pressurise it wasn’t long before Connor Robinson scored Penrith`s second.
Kirkby then kicked the ball into touch 2metres from the try line. Penrith took the resulting lineout throw but Kirkby won the ball and in the resulting melee scored their first try.
Penrith kicked and quickly won the ball back and Jacob made a powerful run forward to allow Luke Coggins to score Penrith`s third.
The game settled down for a period with both sides gaining and losing possession of the ball. Kirkby appeared stronger in the scrums. And It wasn’t until Kirkby began to weaken with the continuing Penrith pressure and a clearance kick , caught by Luke and taken forward that resulted in a Penrith scrum 5 metres from the try line allowing Jonny Hope to score number four.
The second half saw a scrappy start but settled into good attacking play from both teams, with Kirkby again dominating the scrums. And it wasn’t until Liam put a good forward run in that allowed Penrith to take charge and two more tries quickly followed both scored by Jacob.
An excellent run by Liam nearly resulted in a try but he was brought down 1 metre short of the line. Just before full time Luke managed to squeeze one more try in giving a final score of Penrith 7 Kirkby Lonsdale1

Egremont then played Kirkby running out 9-1 winners.
The final game of the morning saw Penrith play Egremont. Having both run out winners against Kirkby this was going to be an interesting match, and so it proved.
Egremont kicked off and the ball was taken by Jacob who made ground forward before offloading to Oliver Bibby who continued the attack until he was pushed into touch.

Egremont began to dominate the play with good passing and early rucks and it wasn’t long before Egremont’s number 11 jinked passed several grasping Penrith hands to score their first try. There followed a period of mixed play with Penrith not taking advantage of loose balls on the ground resulting in Egremont scoring a second.
Penrith were not to be down heartened and just before half time put together a spirited counter attack allowing Connor Robinson to score in the far corner.
Penrith took to the field in the second half knowing the game was still within their grasp and rose to the challenge.
Both teams really demonstrated tremendous grit with some fine play and it wasn’t until Egremont’s no 11 broke free that the game began to run their way. His run was disrupted firstly by Tom Hill before he was brought down by two other Penrith players just short of the line. This resulted in him leaving the field injured for a time. Egremont continued the pressure and added a third to their tally.
In the final few minutes of the game Oliver Bibby managed to wriggle passed the Egremont defence and as he crossed the line to score he was tackled and taken down. The referee declared the ball had not been grounded and could not award the try.
So the final score was Penrith 1 Egremont 3. A result Penrith should be justly proud of. Although the man of the match was awarded to Tom Hill, in my mind a good handful of names were also worthy of that accolade. Well done to the whole team.