Penrith secured a comfortable victory, in the end, against a spirited Workington side at Ellis Park under the Friday night lights. Workington provided a stern test in the first Forty which was reflected in the 12-5 score at the break. Penrith cut out the penalties along with upping the tempo and linking a lot better saw Penrith score Three second half tries and secure a place in the Cumbria Cup Semi-Final.
Penrith, playing with the wind in the first half, put Workington under immediate pressure off the kick off. They retained the ball and making yards into Workington territory. An infringement at the ruck saw a penalty awarded which Penrith quickly tapped. After numerous phases, Penrith were awarded penalty advantage for offside and tried to utilise the advantage down the right hand side through the forwards. The ref could see the play was going nowhere and came back to the mark where the penalty was infringed. Another quick tap was taken by Edward Swale, after seeing a lack of defence down the Workington right. Swale moved the ball to Michael Hawley who drew a defender and moved the ball onto Karl Rylands who jinked his way neatly inside one defender and was strong enough to hold off the tackle of the last man to score in the corner. Mike Hawley missed the difficult conversion, albeit with the wind.
Workington came back strongly making inroads into the Penrith half. A Penrith infringement gave the chance for Workington to kick to the corner. Off the resulting line out, the Zebra forwards drove impressively towards the Penrith line. They moved the ball wide after a neat move in the centres and a speculative pass of 20 yards put the winger in at the corner. The conversion was missed.
Poor discipline for the next quarter saw the game played between the Penrith 22 and the half way line. Good up front defence by Penrith, in particular Mike Stephens and James Hogg, making his first Penrith start, kept Workington outside the 22 and therefore outside of scoring range. But Penrith kept shooting themselves in the foot with players constantly offside and not releasing at the breakdown, which the whistle happy ref was gladly to penalising them for. When Penrith had the ball the forwards took on the majority of the work through strong running of Hogg and Mike Raine but strong and committed Workington defence kept the play within Penrith territory.
On 26 minutes, Ryan Johnson, making his first appearance as Captain in the absence of Steven Wood, was sent to the sin bin for a needless infringement around the ruck on the half way line. Contrary to what Johnson claims, it wasn’t because the ref didn’t like Ryan’s effort at ‘Movember’ – where men grow moustaches throughout November to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer. Workington did seem to fare better playing a man up and were pressing into the Penrith 22 at regular intervals, only for the ball to be turned over or knocked on which allowed Penrith to kick down field with a strong wind behind them.
With half time approaching and the scores tied at five apiece, Workington were again pressing towards the Penrith line. A turnover by Hogg saw the ball moved to Hawley who kicked down field. The ball was fumbled on the Penrith ten metre line by ex-Penrith player Martin Armstrong. Jon Fell was hand to pick up the loose ball and beat a couple of men down the right hand side. Just before he reached the Workington 22, he flicked the ball inside to Ben Littleton who got tackle from behind. The ever alert Swale was on hand to notice no one manning the Workington 5 metre blindside and he gratefully picked and trotted down the blindside to run down and score under the posts. Mike Hawley converted to take Penrith into a 12-5 lead.
With half time approaching all Penrith needed to do was settle down and take a 7 point lead into half time. Johnson had his spent ten minutes in the sin bin and rejoined play. Through the next passage of play Penrith were penalised and back down to 14 men. With Workington again pressing the Penrith line, Prop Craig Rumney was lazy at the breakdown and didn’t roll away after entering the ruck illegally and was correctly sent to the bin for a 10 minute rest. Replacement prop, Craig Price, came on for the resulting scrum and made an immediate impact as the Penrith pack marched forward for the first time in the match in this set piece situation.
With the teams turning around at 12-5 and Workington playing the better rugby with the strong wind now behind them, the game was finely poised. Penrith secured the kick off and Swale marshalled the pack to take numerous carries forward, namely through Hogg & Johnson. Swale then spotted a gap and received the ball to jink his way through a gap and sprint into Workington territory. With Littleton supporting on his side, Swale was indecisive and lost the ball under the tackle from the Workington full back. Penrith continued to pressure the Workington 22 and got a penalty on the 22 which Mike Hawley duly converted to take Penrith into a 15-5 lead.
The referee now seemed to be trying to equal the penalty count with Penrith the beneficiaries. Off a lineout in midfield, the Penrith forwards drove towards the Penrith 22. The ball was spun out to Swale who ran laterally with his centres both cutting inside lines, to keep the Workington defence narrow, he then presided to ‘basket ball’ pass over the open side wingers head to Mike Hawley who beat two defenders to score . He converted his own try to take the score to 22-5.
The next score arose after Michael Hawley missed an easy penalty kick in front of the posts. A long drop out from Workington ended up on the Penrith 5 metre line. Gary Hodgson, playing in the 12 jersey opposed to his regular number 6, trundled back to collect. He was tackled on the Penrith 22 and from the resulting quick ball Littleton picked and found a gap. He then glided past two defenders to get into the Workington half and with Jon Fell in support; Littleton drew the last defender and passed to Fell who ran in from 40 metres out. Hawley again converted, 29-5.
All credit to Workington at this stage who battled on and were next to score. Poor kicking by Swale saw Workington gain possession in good area’s and they won a penalty on half way choosing to kick to the corner. Quick ball off the line out saw the ball spun wide and with a neat backs move in the centres, the ball found the open side winder to finish well and complete a brace of tries. The difficult conversion was missed, 29-10.
Into the last 10 minutes and with Workington tiring, Penrith upped the tempo and got a penalty on the Workington 10 metre line. Littleton tapped and passed to Hawley who ran at the defensive line and broke tackles from two players to run in and get a brace himself. He again converted to take his personal points tally to 21. Workington again battled on scoring a pushover try, late in the match, from a five metre line out to complete the scoring and the game was concluded at 36-17.
Positives must be taken from the second half performance. Swale and Littleton, in the crucial scrum and fly half positions, were catalysts for improved play after the break by speeding up play and utilising the width of the Ellis Park pitch which suited Penriths wide style of play. In the last quarter, Marius Erasmus, youngsters George Udale and Dan Richardson came on to make their First XV debuts coupled with Jonny Wills making his first start for the first team. With Lee Chapman and Karl Rylands again appearing in the Penrith first XV.
Another notable mention must be given to Ryan ‘Bungle’ Johnson who captained the side for the first time. He led by example for the 70 minutes of the match he was on the pitch and was vocal throughout.
Man of the match is a tight three way contest between Swale, Hawley & Hogg. For me it goes to Hogg whose defence never faulted, carried ball and made yards at every opportunity along with providing numerous turnovers in open play.