Penrith's longest trek of the season brought them little joy, the three
hour journey down their was followed by a five hour trip back taking in
the delights of the medical facilities of Hull and a trip over the M62
to deliver injured players home, and then to get well beaten into the
bargain.
For the first quarter of the game the sides were evenly matched, the
home side started the better of the two but both teams tried to play
open running rugby and both looked dangerous in attack, both attacking out
wide to good effect. On that evidence you would have predicted a high
scoring even game, that however was not what was to follow.
Beverley took the lead in a flowing passage of play after 12 minutes,
the ball was in play for a number of minutes, earlier in the same
passage of play James Ellar was away down the right and went close to
scoring but was run off the ball after chipping the final defender.
Beverley's tactics of attacking from all over the field took play from
their own line right to the other end of the field and their adventure
was rewarded with a fine try in the corner. The most telling part of
that particular passage of play turned out to be the blow to the head
taken by Penrith centre David Barton, although his bravery kept him on
the field for several further minutes he had no choice but to go off.
Not only does Barton provide his side with many attacking options he is
also the linchpin in the Penrith defence and the way this game was
being played he was going to be a sorely missed.
Sandy Kerridge came on to replace Barton in the centre and the
youngster stepped up to the mark and put his body on the line and
tackled bravely against the strong running home side.
The game was still very even and the visitors had a golden opportunity
wide out when Gavin Cartmel was clear with Ellar outside him, he chose
to take the ball on himself and was stopped only inches short but was
then penalised for hanging on to the ball. Penrith's options in the
backs were further reduced when Cartmel had to leave the field with a
mouth injury, this time there was not a ready made substitute and David
Preston came off the bench with flanker Mike Stephens moving on to the
wing, although clearly not a winger he did his level best and could not
be faulted in his efforts.
The game was still far from one sided and although Beverley did manage
a second try just before half time the 10 point deficit at the break
did not look insurmountable. However as the second half unfolded the
home side's grip on the game grew ever more stronger and for once the
Penrith heads rather dropped and the score did not reflect the true
difference between the teams. The half time score would have been a
truer reflection of the strength of the two squads but what happened
happened and for once Penrith did not even manage to put one score on
the board!
As always there are some positives, new prop, Andrew Irving rose to the
challenge and feature all afternoon and the senior half backs, Paul
Newton and Steve Wood could not be faulted for their efforts, as the
game slipped away they were all over the field plugging gaps some of
their younger collegues should have been filling. There is always
another week coming and the ability and flair is still there, it just
needs to come to the fore for the trip to Middlesbrough, also telling
will be the fitness or otherwise on the two casualties Barton and
Cartmel.