With the coming season's fixtures being announced this week Penrith are now looking forward to the new campaign and putting their preparations in place for the 2022/23 season. There is a players get together and barbeque on Saturday the 2nd July and training starts in earnest the following Thursday on the 7th July.
Head Coach David Preston is happy to have the services of almost all of last season's squad but will lose Matty Boustead who has moved back over to the North East, Boustead did very well to travel back and see out the season as he moved well before the end of April.
Preston is always looking to strengthen his squad and is delighted to have secured the services of Sam Wilson who has been playing his rugby at Cockermouth, Sam is 28 and captained the club prior to being seriously injured in the season before covid. He then came back last season and as well as playing his club rugby impressed those who saw him turn out for Cumbria who after a good showing only marginally fell short of a trip to Twickenham for the county final.
Sam says being a Cockermouth lad and starting out playing for the club as a six year old it has been a really tough decision but a number of factors have come into play. Cockermouth have suffered as a result of the RFU restructuring and find themselves in the Cumbria league, he knows, and is friends with the lads who travel to Penrith from out West and he is at the age where the time has come to move if he was going to look to play at a higher level. Although he will have played most of his rugby at open side wing forward he is looking to play at No8 and as he puts it, let the youngsters do the donkey work.
Preston said "we had prioritised strengthening our back row and Sam Wilson is the ideal candidate, we've had our eyes on him for a year or two now and I'm really pleased he has decided to come to us, at six feet two inches tall, sixteen stone and a ball player he is ideal and will definitely add something but like the rest of them he'll have to fight for his place. He will fit in with the style of rugby we want to play and will help us kick on as we look to have a real tilt at promotion and a move up the leagues