Penrith's quest for a little bit of glory at the end of an abject
season came to an abrupt end against Wigton on Tuesday evening in the
semi final of the Cumbria County Cup. At one stage they looked to have
the game by the scruff of the neck but finally lost to a try in the
final play of the game that just about summed up their season.
The game didn't start well for them as Wigton's early attacks yielded a
converted try. They did bounce back with a decent bit of play to level
the scores. Winning a lineout on the left the forwards ran it in
through James Thornton and Gary Hodgson before it went wide to Jon Fell
who almost made the line, the ball was then recycled and came left and
there was very little cover and Thornton was able to put in Jamie
McNaughton, Pale Tuilagi converted.
Penrith then went behind again, they were caught out when Wigton tapped
and went with a penalty on halfway they looked as if they were going to
kick, their forwards ended up driving a maul over the line to claim the
converted try.
Penrith again came back and put severe pressure on the visitors in
their own 22, Wigton infringed time and again as under pressure and
lost two players to yellow cards, the hosts profited with a Tuilaga
penalty and then a try from the Kiwi as well after good work by Hodgson
and Ryan Johnson. This gave Penrith a 17-14 lead as they turned round
for the second half.
Penrith were to dominate the third quarter and pen the visitors deep in
their own half but only came up with one score, it was created by
Thornton as he provided his second scoring pass of the evening playing
a delayed ball cleverly out of contact to JJ Key who dived in by the
posts.
Penrith looked home and dry but with 10 minutes to go Wigton scored a
converted try from an attack from a 5m scrum, the home side still had
the chance to kill off the game but as the clock went into added time
Wigton won a scrum on the home 22 and repeatedly drove down blind side
until Penrith ran out of tacklers and conceded a try in the corner. The
conversion went wide but it was of no matter as it was the last kick of
the game.