Penrith were disappointed to lose their first league outing at Lancaster against Vale of Lune but they were much happier than they had been the week before with their lack lustre performance in the county cup. This match was a much better advert for the game with two sides who wanted to play rugby who were looking to run the ball at every opportunity, those present were rewarded with a ten try return and some good, open, attacking, adventurous football.
The informed thinking was that Vale were a good side when in possession of the ball, and they were, and not so good without it. This proved to be true but unfortunately Penrith's problem was denying them possession, Vale were to spend long periods with the ball in attack where Penrith had to defend and not long enough in defence when for periods of play Penrith did well.
Penrith spent most of the first half under the cosh, the home side's kick off went into space they regained possession and from their laid siege to the Penrith line from the off. They were able to string a large number of phases together but the Penrith line held firm. Penrith were penalised at the scrum in an eminently kickable position but the home side opted to rescrum and again the Penrith defence was resolute.
The pressure was continuous and the inevitable try came as the Cumbrians could not get out of their own 22, a couple of nice passes out of contact created the overlap and the try was scored in the corner followed by an excellent touchline conversion.
Penrith did then see a bit of the ball, JJ Key looked dangerous breaking from No8 and when Jamie McNaughton made a break down the right and Matt Allinson in support took the ball up to the home line they earned a penalty but the well struck attempt went wide.
Penrith then conceded a pretty soft try, the stand off, who ran with purpose throughout the game, looked to giving an inside pass, sold the whole defensive line the dummy and strode though to draw the fullback and give the scoring pass. Penrith were 14 points down and were looking favourites to concede a third try defending on their own line when Steven Cherry seized a misplaced pass on his own line. He then set off to run the length of the field, he looked as if he was going to be caught on his 22 but just managed to avoid a dispairing tap tackle and regained his momentum. The cover looked to be closing on him on halfway but he found another gear and went under the posts unopposed. Fearon's conversion brought the score back to 14-7 whereas it could easily have been 21-0.
Penrith were to lose the impressive Key and scrum half Ed Swale to injury in the first half which would restrict their options for substitutions to put on fresh legs as the game wore on and then on half time they conceded a penalty to turn round 17-7 in arrears with it all to do.
If the start of the first half saw them under pressure the start to the second was worse, within five minutes they had conceded a further two converted tries to trail 31-7. The first when the Penrith set scrummage was massively disrupted and the second when they gave away turnover ball and the home side took full advantage with some hard running play.
Penrith continued to try and play their own game and were rewarded with probably the best try of the game, after numerous phases and a nice line break by Craig Price captain Tama Toomata found himself in space and made good ground before releasing the backs, Allinson and McNaughton linked nicely and worked the overlap for Cherry on the outside to score his second try. Fearon converted off the touchline. He then added a penalty when the home fullback attempted to run the ball out of his own 22, was caught and then penalised at the breakdown.
Penrith looked to be hauling themselves back into the game when the strong running Vale backs created a fifth try. The Penrith forwards then set up their side's third try when they destroyed the Vale eight at the set, Toomata took advantage and made inroads into the 22 and when the ball came to Allinson he had space to work with and set away Fearon who cut back in to beat the fullback and go in under the posts, his conversion pulled Penrith back to within 12 points and another try could see them claim a couple of bonus points. That was not to be as free running Vale claimed a sixth try but they did finish strongly to claim a four try bonus point.
From an attacking lineout 15m out the Penrith forwards looked to have gone over but were adjudged not to have grounded the ball but the referee penalised the home side in the build up and the Penrith pack tried to repeat the trick after kicking the penalty to touch. They didn't manage with the forward drive but after exerting pressure on the Vale line a sweeping backs movement saw centre James Bousfield draw in all the cover before neatly releasing McNaughton to go over in the corner.
There is still much for the Penrith backroom staff to work on but on reflection it was a half decent showing, they will need to be more aggressive in defence after conceding six tries but their are a few new faces, especially in the backs and they will need a little time. Pleasing though was the spirit at 31-7 down and also the form shown by Ross Jackson who came off the bench to scrum half.