Penrith, as expected, duly progressed to the county cup final against a Furness side struggling at the foot of the league below them. The final score line may have had an air of respectability about it but the performance certainly didn't, Penrith on the day were awful. Furness were the team battling against relegation in the North Lancs and Cumbria league but for large sections of this game a neutral spectator would have struggled to decide which of the two sides was riding high at fourth place in the league above.
Penrith got a decent enough start, within five minutes they had kicked a penalty to into the home 22, won the lineout and set up the driving maul which got close enough to the line for South African prop Sanele Mtumbe to break off and crash over for the opening score. They set up a similar situation minutes later but couldn't quite force their way over, had they managed they might have put the tie to bed.
Furness were soon on the scoreboard as Penrith were penalised at the breakdown as they were so often during the game. Rather than allow the home side possession and hitting them on the gain line which they were more than capable of doing they kept infringing at the breakdown and allowing the home side, which never looked like threatening the try line, a foothold in the game.
The penalty brought the home side to within two points but then Penrith went on to add a second try and conversion. The referee awarded a penalty try as the Penrith eight looked favourites to drive a 5m scrum over the home line only to be stopped illegally. Penrith were now 12-3 up but continued to allow the home side to stay in the game conceding a string of penalties. The next two scores were to go to the home side and were both drop goals and as half time approached Penrith were only three points to the good, they were to turn around on level terms at 12-12 as they conceded another kickable penalty, that was goaled and all was to play for.
Despite a roasting from head coach David Preston at half time things didn't immediately improve as they conceded yet another penalty and trailed for the first time in the game. They weren't behind for long and levelled the scores with a Mike Fearon penalty but were still struggling to impose themselves on their lower league opposition. The pitch was very heavy which didn't suit Penrith's style of play as they would consider themselves a "top of the ground" side but eventually it did get to the legs of the home players and Penrith did start to find a few more gaps.
Ed Swale got away on half way and a score looked on as he crossed into the 22 but the defence just managed to get to Fearon who took the inside pass. The scores were still level approaching the final quarter and although still stuttering Penrith managed to play a little bit of rugby, they attacked down the right and when the ball was moved rapidly back left Tama Toomata and Pale Tuilagi found the defence stretched and unselfishly drew their men to put Darren Lee away and once in space he was not going to be caught. Fearon hit the conversion off the touchline but Furness were to hit back again.
Penrith had made a "Horlicks" of most of the restarts and once more didn't disappoint and got themselves penalised for another three pointer for the home side. They did, however, manage to string a few rare phases together and again found space for Lee on the left and he went in for his second try with Fearon again adding the conversion from wide out. Lee, in truth, should have had four tries to his name as a pass to him was spurned on two occasions when all he had to do was use his pace to run the try in.
The game was over bar the shouting but Penrith did add a fifth try with the last play as Henry Hadfield muscled his way over from short range. Cup games are all about making sure you appear in the next round, this Penrith did but they did make hard work of it and at one stage their band of supporters feared the worst and yet another cup exit against a lower league side.
There are lessons to be learned from this, Penrith face Eccles next who are struggling at the bottom of North 1 West and if they take the same attitude into that game they will come a poor second. You cannot take any side for granted and this did appear to be the problem.