Penrith's reign as league leaders did not last long as they fell from grace after a poor performance away at Morpeth as their two rivals at the top, Pocklington and West Hartlepool, both won leaving Penrith back in third place. Their performance probably owed more to the game the week before where they went to the top of the table on the back of a 100+ point win, if they thought after that all they needed to do was turn up to win they were badly mistaken.
The Morpeth team talk would be easy, "these lot put 48 points on us at home, they have just gone to the top of the league but they are nothing like as good as they think they are, get ripped into them". And by and large that is exactly what happened.
Penrith started poorly, for the first quarter of an hour all they did of note was get murdered in the set scrums and give penalties away. The home side struggled to make progress with ball in hand but the string of penalties allowed them to work their way slowly up the right touchline until they were in the Penrith red zone. They then got a further penalty head on to the posts and took a three point lead.
The home side were dominating possession but in a rare attack Penrith kicked a penalty to touch in the Morpeth half, they won the lineout and after a forward drive Ryan Johnson drove into midfield only for the home side to offend to give Mike Fearon a penalty shot. It was not the easiest of kicks but he struck the ball well to put his side on even terms.
Penrith knocked on at the restart and from the resulting scrum, which the home side won with ease, the ball came to the home backs and a kick was put high and wide for the right winger, the bounce was kind and he took it in his stride, the Penrith cover did get to him and half tackled him but could not hang on and he scored wide out.
Morpeth continued to have the lion's share of the play and it was no surprise when they extended their lead just before the break with a drop goal. When Penrith did get their hands on the ball they struggled to keep it and put the home side under any pressure as it never seemed to be long before a mistake was made, the ball dropped or lost in contact. Typical of this was the end of the first half when they did have an attacking opportunity when they kicked a penalty to the corner for an attacking 5m lineout. The throw was good and the jumper unopposed but the ball was knocked on.
Penrith turned round 11-3 down and in the second half had to play up the slope, if that did not make things difficult enough for them they conceded a penalty try in only the second minute of the half. Ed Swale was unlucky to have been adjudged to have made a high tackle in the corner close to the line. The new interpretation of the high tackle has put this to the forefront of the referee's mind and is leading to some strange decisions. Swale received a yellow card as did a Morpeth player was also unlucky to be carded for a similar incident when Ben Littleton slid into him.
It didn't help the Cumbrian's cause though, as well as the slope they faced an uphill battle trailing 18-3. The pattern of the game did not change with the home side having most of the game and Penrith living on scraps. It took them 20 minutes to get out of their own half and eventually they did apply some sustained pressure in the Morpeth half.
They efforts did finally result in a score, from a set scrum on the left some 30m out they won scrappy possession. The ball flew out of the scrum and George Graham did manage to chase back and gather the ball and get it to Fearon, he put the ball down the line and it looked pretty static until Jamie McNaughton, now at fullback, hit the line. He made the half break and got the pass away nicely to Jon Fell who still had a bit to do. He was tap tackled just short of the line but was just able gather himself and get over for the score before the cover landed.
There was just over ten minutes to go at this stage but any hopes of a late fightback were quashed as the home side were able to continue to monopolize possession and what little ball Penrith did get they had to try and attack from deep, they got more desperate as the clock wound down and it just didn't happen.
All is not lost for the Cumbrian side but it becomes more difficult, they face the two sides above them in their next two games and although their fate is still in their own hands there is getting less and less room for manoeuvre.