On Thursday evening Penrith hosted local Cumbrian rivals Asparia in the first round of the county cup, it was a hard fought physical affair with no quarter given but the home side ran out relatively easy winners scoring four tries without reply.
Penrith had much the better of the early exchanges and were ahead in the second minute with a penalty from Nathan Wooff. They were dominant in the set scrums and almost scored their first try when they drove the visitors off their own scrum ball, George Graham and Liam Tunstall made ground down the right but the scoring pass did not go to hand.
They went close to scoring a second time when Dan Richardson looked to have got over the line but the ball squirted forward. They finally crossed after good work down the short side saw Tunstall set up Jamie McNaughton who cut through.
Penrith always looked dangerous and scored a second try just before half time when an Aspatria clearance kick was half charged down, the ball was heading for the right touchline and was tidied up by Jonny Wills, Jay Rossi broke down the short side and set McNaughton away for his second try, Wooff converted both tries and at the break the home led 17-0.
The second half proved to be frustrating for the home side as they were on the wrong end of a high penalty count, this allowed Aspatria a lot more possession and field position than they otherwise would have got but it did give them chance to show their defensive qualities and the tackling and covering was first rate with the visitors often kicking aimlessly as they ran out of options.
Penrith scored a second try when Graham charged down an attempted clearance kick on the Aspatria 22 and was able to gather the ball and run in under the posts and with a quarter of an hour to go the forwards piled on the pressure and Will Morgan bulldozed his way over for the final score.
With the game won Penrith's evening ended extremely disappointingly when Wooff badly twisted his knee going for a loose ball, he had had an excellent game but was to carry off and looks as if he will be out for a while.
Penrith coaching team were left to reflect on a game they should probably have won by a bigger margin and would have if their discipline had been better, the defence however was right up there and it takes a real effort to "nil" any side. Losing Wooff will be a blow as they prepare for their first league game on the 1st Sept