A Close Encounter of the Kirkby Kind

Penrith Squad;
Kieran Adams, Max Blundell, Diarmid Bradon, Luke Coulston, Harry Dodd, Jacob Fidler, Louie Johnston, Ollie Larkins, Will Marston, Oliver Morley, Lewis Newton, Zak Parkin, Sam Reay, Alec Robinson

Playing against the most effective opposition faced to date, Penrith Under 12's came out on the wrong side of a one try defeat. A bruising encounter the lads tried hard but were found just short by giving away ball from penalties and being out rucked.

Things looked to be business as usual when Max Blundell went over for a try early in the first half following dropped ball from Kirkby Lonsdale.
From the restart both teams tussled hard with possession fluctuating and play moving up and down the field of play. A series of silly penalties by Penrith gifted Kirkby Lonsdale ball despite Penrith pressure.
Excellent defence from the "hoops" kept Kirkby Lonsdale at bay but when Penrith attacked line fever seemed to rear its head and chances went begging. Dropped passes from Penrith and desperate defence from Kirkby, contributed to keeping the score to one try in the first half.

Second half underway a forward drive and ruck allowed good ball to reach Max again and over he went for his second try of the day.
Straight from kick off Kirkby turned the ball over and ran in to score the first of four tries.
The second came after a penalty award against Penrith near their line was run in from close range, the third from a dropped ball and the fourth from a lost ruck.
As the second half progressed Penrith seemed to giving away more and more ruck ball despite going in with it. In reality the rucking and passing was not as good as it has been and played into the right into the hands of the opposition. Injuries also compounded to make the game more difficult.
Several attacks fell just shy of the line and Kirkby were able to defend, win and kick away every attempt made.
A restart from ball kicked into touch by Kirkby resulted in a final Penrith try. With the opposition waiting for the pass to the "big runners" , they were outwitted by Luke taking the pass and he ran without any significant tackle attempt from near half way to score.

This was the last score with the game finishing shortly after as Kirkby were about to be awarded another penalty for not releasing.

Final score;
Penrith 3 : 4 Kirkby Lonsdale

So a better contest than of late but not quite enough to overcome the circumstances of the match.
Well played Penrith despite a difficult game where everything seemed go against us. Let's get our rucking game back on track and the tries will follow. This narrow defeat should help us to move into our next game with the determination to get back to winning ways.

Match Report by David Bradon