A huge sigh of relief went round Winters Park about four o' clock on
Saturday afternoon as the registered their first win in five coming out
on top of a hard fought game against a game Lymm side. Both sides were
in poor runs of form and Penrith looked to have killed off the visitors
twice, firstly at 14-0 in the first half and at 28-12 in the second but
both times they came back strongly and made the home side fight all the
way.
Lymm started the better of the two and in the early minutes won turn
over ball and a scrum against the head in he home 22, Penrith defended
well and scored with their first attacking move of the game. They won a
scrum on half way, the forwards drove the ball back in before it came
to Steve Wood who spun the ball wide to Gavin Cartmel who hit the line
at pace from full back, made ground and then put Joe Nattrass away on
the wing. Nattrass hugged the line and drew the cover across before
playing the ball back inside to the new slimline Cartmel who's pace was
far too much for any of the cover.
There was little to chose between the sides but Penrith's disipline was
the better which it hasn't been in recent weeks, it's so much easier
when it's the opposition who are giving the penalties away and it's you
who are putting them under pressure with raking touch kicks. Wood
kicked a penalty to the visitor's 22 which was duly won, Mike Raine
appeared through the ensuing maul with the ball and was hauled down
just short of the line, the forwards arrived and produced second phase
ball which Wood sent wide to Mike Hawley who went for the line himself
and was tackled inches short, Gary Hodgson was on hand to pick the ball
and drive over. Wood kicked his second conversion into a strong wind
for a 14 point lead.
This lead looked pretty secure despite a scare or two but the yellow
carding of Ryan Johnson for a high tackle seemed to be the catalyst
that sparked the visitors comeback. In time added for stoppages they
stormed the home line, eventually scoring when they ran the ball from a
free kick close to the home line. A well struck conversion brought them
back to 14-7 at the break and what was looking like an easy afternoon
for the hosts turned out to be anything but.
Lymm started the second period at a breakneck pace and scored an
unconverted try before Penrith got hold of the ball. They were now
within two points, throwing everything at Penrith and looking
favourites but the game was to turn on three phases of play. Lymm were
putting the ball through the phases and it went down their back line on
half way, Wood who knows a thing or two about interception passes read
the play perfectly, took the interception cleanly on half way and was
15 yards clear of the cover before they realise what had happened and
scored next to the posts. His conversion went over and the visitors
dropped out for the restart. They put the ball to the Penrith backs and
it was taken by James Sanderson who slipped the tackler and had the
whole field open in front of him, he took the ball up to the 10m line
and put Nattrass away who got deep into the 22 before the visitors got
the ball scrambled into touch.
Penrith won the line out and the pack heaved towards the line, drive
after drive, but they were held up until Paul Newton went blind, the
ball was shifted quickly to hooker Ian McDowell who released to Hodgson
and the cover was too stretched and he strolled in, Wood's steady boot
earned the two points and Penrith looked comfortable again.
Again Lymm came storming back, Wood put a raking kick with the wind
deep into the Lymm half, the chasing up was poor and two phases of play
later they had scored in the corner and there was still 20 minutes to
go. Although there was no addition to the score in that period it put
years on the Penrith coaching staff and supporters. It should have been
relitively easy to play out the game but on the back of a poor run
nerves were janggling, tackles were missed, wrong options were taken
and it was nail biting stuff. During this period Wood got himself
yellow carded and going down to 14 men didn't help, Newton however
steeped up to the mark and used all his experience at scrum half to
steady the ship and Penrith did hold on for a vital win that will
hopefully turn their season round.
The league table now looks reasonably healthy even when you deduct the
points that will be lost for fielding an ineligable player.