Penrith u12`s host Millom and Hawcoat Park

Sunday 22nd February 2015
Penrith u12`s v Millom and Hawcoat Park
Team :- Dylan Aitken, Jacob Batey, Oliver Bibby, Harry Chambers, Luke Coggins, Declan Devaney, Llewelyn Giggs, Tom Hill (Capt) Jonny Hope, Spencer Lancaster, Bailey Potts, Liam Scott, Mathew Thompson, Andy Walsh (man of the match) Thomas Wear, Adam Wilson.
The last match of February reminded us that winter isn`t quite over as the first match of the morning started, so the sky darkened and the snow started to come across the pitches horizontally. Keen to get going the boys took to the pitch and the three subs were wrapped up nice and warm in the new full length coats. The first opponents of the morning were Millom fielding a strong squad with a good mix of boys and girls.
Harry Chambers kicked off for Penrith and both sides contested well probing for gaps in each other’s defence. Luke Coggins came off after a couple of minutes with a nose bleed which was quickly staunched by the team first aiders.
Andy Walsh opened the scoring for Penrith with a determined run on the far side of the pitch. Penrith continued to pressurise moving the ball well at the back, putting Liam Scott into space beyond the reach of defenders to score Penrith`s second try.
Millom started to counter attack and just before half time found a hole in the home team’s defence and scored.
The second half saw Millom start the stronger attacking side but Penrith managed to turn the ball over and Jacob Batey worked hard to move the ball forward. Despite the hard work put in by the Penrith defence it was Millom that scored first in this half.
Both teams played some good attacking rugby and the stalemate was only broken when Oliver Bibby managed to wrestle the ball over the line and inch Penrith ahead by one try.
Not to be outdone Millom kept the pressure up and levelled the score at three tries apiece at the final whistle. With Penrith hitting the post on an early conversion Millom ran out winners by a whisker.
Keen not to get snowed in Millom hit the road early and Penrith welcomed Hawcoat Park who hit the ground running scoring two tries in quick succession before Penrith got their act together.
Harry Chambers playing at scrum half upped his game by scoring a try before half time.
Penrith spent most of the second half camped out on the Hawcoat try line and despite several periods of tryline fever with forwards trying to run through a solid Hawcoat defence, Penrith slowly wore down and finally dominated Hawcoat, with four tries being scored.
The turning point was an attempted clearance from behind the try line that was charged down by Tom Hill, the loose ball was gathered up by Adam Wilson who scored.
Some tidy passing from the back of the scrum initiated by Spencer Lancaster put Jonny Hope into clear space to score.
This was followed by Jacob Batey powering over the line to get his name on the score sheet.
Rounding things off Harry Chambers got his second and Penrith`s fifth with a clever pick and go from a loose ruck.
Man of the Match was Andy Walsh who worked his socks off in both games. With a try in the first and some solid tackling and running in both games. But he especially deserved it for despite the atrocious conditions continuing to smile and enjoy himself.
Final score Penrith 5tries Hawcoat Park 2tries.