After their drubbing the week before at Stockport in the final league game of the season Penrith hoped to get the disappointment out of their system in the Cup semi final at Workington. Although two leagues below them Workington have had a decent season also finishing third in their respective league; you never get an easy ride on a trip to West Cumberland, so Penrith were expecting a tough afternoon.
Although they were never in any danger of not winning they knew they had been in a contest. Penrith nerves were settled as early as the third minute when they took the lead. Mike Hawley gathered the ball after a bout of ping pong kicking, beat several players before chipping ahead into the home 22 and won an attacking lineout as the ball was hacked into touch. Penrith secured the ball at the lineout and drove for the line, drives from David Preston and Rob Dawson took them to the line before Preston finally dived over. Steve Wood played but was hampered with a sore hamstring so James Ellar had the kicking duties for the day and was narrowly wide with the conversion.
Workington then had the upper hand as Penrith made a catalogue of handling errors giving away possession and position on a regular basis. Although they conceded a 5 metre scrum and penalties close to the line, their defence was good enough and held firm; they did give away three kickable penalties in this ten minute period of madness and one was converted to pull the deficit back to 3-5. Penrith then took hold of the game again and when they stopped making schoolboy errors looked reasonably comfortable. They extended their lead on the half hour from a scrum in the home 22, Mike Raine broke from No8 and almost made the line before feeding Gav Cartmel who did very well to squeeze over with
several defenders much larger than himself in close attendance, Ellar converted for a 12-3 lead which they held till half time.
The game was effectively won in the first ten minutes of the second half, Penrith were on the attack immediately and from a 5 metre scrum in the corner Raine broke from the base and blasted down the narrow side to score. Shortly after a loop in the Penrith centre created a clear overlap for Sandy Kerridge on the wing, he was clean through with only the full back to beat, this he did with ease and at 24-3 Penrith had the game in the bag.
Old Workington boy Hawley was next on the score sheet as he intercepted on half way to push Penrith further ahead. The home side then staged a fight back and scored a couple of tries, credit to them for not letting up on their effort but some of the visitors tackling left a bit to be desired.
At 31-15 the home side had a glimmer of hope but two late tries put the game beyond doubt. The home backs attacked from their own 22 but spilt the ball and a couple of sharp passes gave Ellar a simple run in and the final try was a bit of class. Gavin Young who hadn't played all season was called up as a last minute replacement and came on for the final quarter, he received the ball with a little bit of room on the 22, found another gear, made an outside break and glided in making all those watching and hopefully himself wonder what he had been doing all season standing on the touchline.
Penrith now progress to the final which will be on Saturday 1st May at Wigton, against a Carlisle side who have yet to play a cup game, having a walkover in the quarter final and a bye in the semi.