In their final game of the calendar year Penrith got the away win they were looking for at Dinnington but it was hardly in the manner they were expecting. They had won the home game earlier in the season with a feast of running rugby scoring seven tries and although they were under pressure in the set scrums and let in two sloppy tries in the final minutes the result was never in doubt. This game was a nail biter to the end and the poorest game Penrith have been involved in for some time.
Penrith started well enough and within five minutes took the lead with a sweeping move. Dan Richardson won lineout ball on his own 22, they then went through the phases, at one point Mike Fearon looked as if he had lost his way but then jinked his way up to the home 22. The recycled ball was crashed up in midfield by Phil Armstrong and with the cover pulled in Jamie Mcnaughton glided through what was left of the Dinnington defence as only he can.
Fearon's conversion gave Penrith a seven point lead but they were pegged back immediately as they failed to secure the restart, were penalised and the kick for goal was good and the lead down to four points.
Penrith then got on the wrong side of the referee who was particularly picky and they gave him plenty to be picky about. During the whole game they were penalised 22 times, that is more than once every four minutes and were also on the receiving end of five yellow cards. They had only had five yellows in the 14 games played so far this season and they gave themselves a mountain to climb.
A penalty every four minutes played right into the home side's hands, they are not the most mobile of sides and were walking very slowly to lineouts from the start of the game. A blizzard of penalties gave them every opportunity to get their breath back, regroup and slowly wander to the next passage of play. Penrith were unable to put any pace on the game, the longer it went on the more frustrated they got and worse it got and as a result the poorer the spectacle got. It was dire!
Just before the half hour they were defending a 5m scrum with forwards Mike Raine and Craig Price yellow carded, they had been under pressure in the set scrums prior to this and although centre Armstrong added his weight to the scrum the writing was on the wall. They got shunted backwards and the No8 dived over, the conversion gave the hosts a three point advantage.
Penrith did have a decent period of play as their 13 men on the field got the bit between their teeth an mounted an assault on the home line, the forwards went close with a number pick and goes but on the stroke of half time with Dinnigton's defence penalised they went for the kick at goal to level the scores at 10-10. There was just time before the break for Penrith to be penalised one more time but the long distance shot at goal went wide.
The second half was to follow the same pattern as the first with Penrith spending most of the time in their own half as the home side kicked the penalties to the corners and their forwards wandered to the lineouts. Fortunately for Penrith the home lineouts were not as efficient as their scrums and Harlan Corrie, Richardson and Raine were able to disrupt quite a lot of their ball.
The game turned into a stalemate with only occasional outbreaks of rugby, Raine rolled back the years with a trademark pick and go from No8 making ground and putting Jon Fell away only for it to break up on the 22 but these were few and far between.
The home side had a drop goal attempt go wide and then missed a penalty and it looked as if the game was drifting towards a draw when Dinnington got up a head of steam and mounted an assault on the Penrith line in the final ten minutes. The visitors had Arran Sullivan back on the field after a yellow but at this stage were missing Ryan Banks who after a combative game was spending the last ten minutes on the touchline following a yellow card.
In the gloom and cheered on by sizable home crowd they eventually forced a driven maul over the line to take what looked like a match winning lead. The conversion was wide which gave Penrith a glimmer of hope in the remaining five minutes.
Penrith threw everything at the home side in an attempt to save the game, they finally got a mismatch of backs against forwards on the right and got Fell away on the outside, he sped down the flank but was tackled on the 22 when he tried to step back inside. He went down and presented the ball and Matt Allinson was first to it, snapped it up and was able to shrug off the last defender and run in under the posts to level the scores.
It was then left for Fearon to chip over the conversion for the winning points but there was still a couple of minutes left on the clock, plenty of time to give away a couple more penalties, get a yellow card for the excellent Liam Tunstall and some heart stopping moments before a home knock on heralded the final whistle.
Penrith had "got out of jail" but should really have made easier work of this but they battled hard, put in some tremendous last gasp defending when short of numbers and never gave up even when their frustration was clear. Other result on the day had gone for them and a look at the league table shows it is all in their own hands.