Penrith's coaching team were more than pleased with their side on what could have been a sticky afternoon in the north east. The pitch was certainly sticky which inhibited their open running style of play and the opposition, although not especially threatening, were certainly up for it and defended stoutly throughout hardly missing a tackle all day and all the Cumbrians points were hard earned.
The Westoe pitch has quite a slope and the visitors elected to play downhill in the first half and it took them a while to get into their game and break down their hosts. Sam Wilson and Archie Rattray combined well early on and it resulted in Andy Muir being held up over the line. They were having the better of possession and field position but were struggling in the sluggish conditions to take advantage of it.
When they did open the scoring, it was hardly vintage, Muir did well to tidy up some wayward passing that had gone to ground wide out then make a bit of ground, Mason Lewthwaite found himself on the wing outside Muir and when he found him he had the pace to go all the way on the outside and outstrip the cover to the corner.
The score rather settled the visitors and their second try did show a bit of quality, Rattray secured lineout ball 30m out and George Graham broke from the tail of the line, Lewthwaite and James Thompson carried the ball deep into the 22 and when it was spun back to the left there was enough space for Jamie McNaughton to release Fraser Nicolson to go in at the corner. On the half hour the visitors scored a third try with a similar move, Graham again broke from the lineout this time with Wilson and Lewthwaite in support and they took play right up to the line and Rattray was there to pick and go and dot the ball down besides the posts.
The Winters Park men led 19-0 at the break and the second half continued in similar vein with the home team battling away and Penrith working hard to break them down. They scored their bonus point try when lineout ball on the 22 was messed up, Nicolson on the blindside wing was able to take the ball and they spun it across the backs and Nick Dudson found himself wide on the right and had the pace to round the winger. He was brought to ground by the cover just short of the line, Mike Fearon was then up quickly and was able to go round the far side of the breakdown and ground the ball in the very corner.
Scott Lancaster claimed the fifth try from a standard training ground catch and drive from an attacking 5m lineout and then Joe Spencely did the spade work to get Jay Rossi through the gap and he set up McNaughton for the easiest of tries to complete scoring.
Coming off the pitch the visitors were pleased they had achieved what they had set out to do and come away with a bonus point win, they were hardly back in the changing room when the news came through that Morpeth has lost a second game in 2023 this time to Northern. Penrith were now genuinely top of the league and not there just because they had played an extra game. They now face two massive games at home, the first against Percy Park who also won at Morpeth and then against Morpeth themselves. The league is theirs to lose.