For the second game in succession Penrith went behind with only minutes left on the clock to then come back and steal the game in the dying seconds. In neither game have they played particularly well, both at Dinnington before Christmas and here at Durham they performed well below their best. Does grabbing two wins in such circumstances suggest a side that may be going on to greater things? The old cliche about winning ugly.
As at Dinnington, Penrith got a decent start. In the first five minutes they got a penalty some 30m out but rather than kick for goal backed their forwards and kicked to the corner for a lineout. It proved to be the correct decision as they won the lineout finding Liam Tunstall at the tail, they then set up the driven maul from 5m out which was wheeled to the right and made the line with Arran Sullivan diving over. Mike Fearon added the conversion.
As Penrith often do they then spent long periods without the ball defending and giving penalties away at regular intervals to give the opposition good field position and plenty of ball. However they did defend pretty well and although the home side didn't really threaten the Penrith line they did get a string of penalty attempts. The home kicker was striking the ball well and hit two out of the first three attempts to pull his side to within one point of the Cumbrians.
On the half hour the visitors did get a bit of possession and a penalty shot after a series of forward drives was stopped illegally, Fearon struck the penalty nicely to pull the lead out to four points.
A lot of the talk on the day had been of the new interpretation of the high tackle laws, "head is red!" Well the ref got a chance to put it into practise as Will Morgan was brought down with a nasty head high straight arm tackle, the ref didn't hesitate, a straight red.
With the home side down to 14 men Penrith took advantage from a scrum 30m out, Mike Raine broke blind down the right, fed the ball to Ed Swale who angled a grubber kick in behind the winger, Jamie McNaughton was in hot pursuit and the ball sat up nicely for him. He took it at pace and stepped inside the covering fullback to go in for a well worked try. Although the conversion was missed Penrith looked on their way at 15-9 ahead.
That though did not prove to be the case, they conceded another penalty just before half time and would have conceded another one just after, the penalty had been signaled but a drop goal went over while advantage was being played and that was Durham back within three points.
Penrith just couldn't seem to get a grip of the game and play it at a pace that suited them, it was turgid stuff and not very pleasing to the eye but it suited the home side.
They drew level as Penrith conceded yet another penalty and the game went into the last five minutes with the home side on the attack. They were virtually on the Penrith line but eventually the defense forced a knock on, it was signaled but as advantage was played and they went to clear the ball a needless penalty was given away blocking a home player attempting a charge down.
The penalty went over and that was the home side in front for the first time in the game. There was then an eventful end to the game, the home side were to receive a second red card as Ben Littleton got an elbow in the face while attempting the tackle. The penalty was kicked to the corner for an attacking lineout but the throw in was not straight and that looked to be that.
The 13 men of Durham were hanging on grimly but were then penalised for being offside, again the penalty was kicked to the corner and this time the throw to the lineout was good. It was well taken by Dan Richardson in the middle of the line and the driven maul set up, a number of the backs lent there weight to the maul and they got over the line, the referee saw the ball grounded and awarded the try and it was Swale who came up with the ball, his first try from a forward drive!
Fearon hit the conversion and there was just time to restart the game, the restart drop kick was secured and Phil Armstrong in the scrum half position banged the ball into touch to end the game and Penrith had got out of jail again.
Penrith face third placed Alnwick at Winters Park next up in what is a vital game and an improvement will be required if that is to be successful, it is a home game though and Penrith always up their game against the better sides so they will be approaching it with quiet confidence.