Under 12`s Penrith 4 Vale of Lune 6

Sunday 1st February 2015
U12`s Penrith v Vale of Lune
4 tries -6 tries
Team:- Jacob Batey, Harry Chambers, Luke Coggins, Declan Devaney, Llewelyn Giggs, Tom Hill, Jonny Hope, Elliot Judge, Spencer Lancaster, Sam Nelson, Declan Parkinson, Bailey Potts, Connor Robinson, Liam Scott, Mathew Thompson, Andy Walsh (man of the Match), Thomas Wear, Adam Wilson (match captain)
At the end of my last report on the fine performance by Penrith`s under 12 team at Kirkby Lonsdale, I made comment that there were tough games ahead, and this Sunday against Vale of Lune was one of them. Penrith are beginning to play better as a team and players are settling into position. This allows them to play a more flowing game. However what this week’s game exposed were the weaknesses in their defence. The opposition are much harder to stop if you give them the space to run at you with the ball, and they will.
That lesson was delivered within the first couple of minutes as Penrith Kicked off. Vale gathered the ball and charge forward brushing off tackles and scoring.
It was a lesson Penrith responded to with pressure of their own, Tom Hill made a powerful run forward with the ball eventually going out of play 5 metres from the try line. It was a Vale throw but the ball was won back by Penrith and passed to Liam Scott who found room to score.
The game settled for a while until Thomas Wear made a strong tackle and was penalised by the referee. He came off the field mistakenly thinking he had been sent off, play continued for some minutes before the attention of the referee was gained and it was established he hadn’t sent him off.
Jacob Batey`s hard work and commitment were rewarded just before the end of the first period with a try.
The second period saw Vale kick off with the ball caught by Hill. Vale pushed forwards in strength forcing Connor Robinson into kicking to clear the ball. Despite some good tackling by the likes of Bailey Potts and Andy Walsh, Penrith couldn’t turn the ball over and Vale scored two tries.
Penrith responded with a run from Scott to within 5 metres, Penrith kept the pressure on forcing an attempted clearance kick from Vale that was charged down by Batey. He was fed the ball from the resulting scrum and crashed over the line to level the score at three tries each.
Just before the end of the period Spencer Lancaster caught a boot in the face from a tackled cartwheeling Vale player but luckily avoided serious injury.
The third period saw Hill off with an injured neck received from a ruck.
Penrith kicked off and this was the turning point of the match. Despite some valiant tackling from Match Captain Adam Wilson and Man of the Match Andy Walsh and others, Vale kept possession of the ball. They very quickly scored three tries in succession. Connor Robinson was having none of it and from the back of any scrum near the Vale line he was picking up and going being rewarded with a try before Vale closed him down.
What was it that turned the game in Vale`s favour? Was it the fact that Penrith nearly scored two tries, one with a foot just out of touch and anther being held up. Not really, more likely it was the strength of their continued attacking play that wore the Penrith defence down. For me the lesson from Sunday was, give any team space to run at you and they are far harder to stop.