Penrith's encouraging start to the season came to an abrupt halt at Manchester on Saturday, the home side brought them down to earth with a resounding bump with a display of pace and strength. Penrith have had two good wins against Stockport and Leek and started both those games at pace but the exact opposite was their downfall here.
Manchester couldn't have made a better start to the game and flew out of the traps and at the Cumbrians from the off with devastating results, the first three times they had possession of the ball they scored and after five minutes had built a 17 point lead. The visitors had a mountain to climb and it was about to get steeper as first they lost Matty Boustead to injury and then by midway through the first half Dylan Thompson and Archie Rattray had also left the field of play not to return.
Penrith briefly looked to get back into the game and scored the fourth try of the afternoon, Rattray, before he limped off, broke from No8 in the home 22 and made ground before finding George Graham. He fed Fraser Nicolson and then Isaac Murray was able to get the ball out of contact to Rob Coward who broke for the line. He looked to be tackled a few yards short but had the strength to make the line for his try.
The visitors' hopes of a revival didn't last long as the hosts continued to dominate and added a further two tries before the break as they spread play at every opportunity, looked dangerous every time the ball went wide and they turned round with a lead of 29-5 and added another two tries to their total in the opening minutes of the second half and a proper cricket score looked on the cards.
The home side scored again to take their total to just short of the half century and with quarter of an hour to go the visitors were looking down the barrel as they lost Jay Rossi and had to finish the game reduced to 14 men.
From here on in they regained a little pride, all that was left in the game for them was the possibility of a four try bonus point and they did their damnedest to go for it. They won turnover ball in their own half and ran it back, James Thompson made the break that took play to the home 22, Ryan Banks continued the movement and was involved again after Jonny Hodgson and Andy Rogers took play forward then Scott Lancaster finally made the last 10 yards to reach the line with the assistance of Coward.
Hopes of that bonus point were lifted when Nick Dudson fielded a kick deep in his own half, Coward was involved again as he made the break in midfield to take play into the attacking half, he was tackled but managed to get the ball away to the elusive Ashton Hook who had the pace and guile to get over in the corner. In the final minutes they strived for the fourth try but couldn't just manage but did go down fighting.
It was a disastrous afternoon not just because of the result but more importantly the list of casualties, they will just have to dust themselves off, gather up those still fit, and get back on the bus this weekend for their longest trip for a league game to Newport in Shropshire some three hours down the M6