Penrith played their first competitive game of the season when they
hosted Wigton in the quarter final of the County Cup. Penrith came into
the game off the back of one trial game the week before at St
Benedicts, and seven of the squad hadn't played in that, whereas Wigton
had had three warm up games and for the first half that was more than
apparent.
Penrith began very slowly compared with Wigton who were up for it right
from the start, for the first 40 minutes the home team were slow of
thought and deed and as a result gave away a string of unnecessary
penalties and David Hanabury kicked beautifully to convert five
attempts out of five, Penrith could only answer with one of their own
from Steve Wood to trail 15-3 at the break. They played in fits and
starts in the first period and only rarely did they show any of their
attacking ability, there was the odd decent break from Mike Hawley and
Gary Hogson and on one occasion Billy Barton in support was stopped
just short of the line.
The second half was a different affair, although Penrith were anything
but fluent they did manage to put enough decent play together to spend
some time in the Wigton 22 and won a couple of 5m penalties. They
scored their first try after the forwards had battered the line and the
ball came to the backs, James Ellar made half a break and put Hawley in
with a short pass who picked his line of running perfectly. Wood
converted and within two minutes got a second conversion after Phil
Fell, intercepting on his own 10m line outpaced the cover and raced in.
Had he not made the interception the try could well have gone the other
way.
Within two minites from trailing by 12 points Penrith now had their
noses in front and you might have expected the lower league side's
heads to drop. They had played so well in the first half and built a
decent lead and now trailed, they did no such thing though and within
five minutes had the lead again with another Hanabury penalty. The home
side were now looking something like themselves and again camped in the
visitor's 22, they stretched their defence and when the ball came to
Wood he saw they were light wide on the left, he threw his trademark
long pass which was taken by replacement lock Nick Benson who
unselfishly flipped it back inside to Phil Fell who claimed his second
try. Wood again converted and then struck a second penalty to put his
side two scores ahead.
Wigton had never really threatened the home line but as the game to a
close they were deep in the home 22 and from a 5m penalty their
forwards were able to drive over in the corner, Wigton missed their
only kick of the day with the conversion and Penrith only had to see
out added time to confirm their place in the semis where they join
Workington, Kirkby Lonsdale and Carlisle.