Penrith's unbeaten start to the season came to an end at Malton on Saturday, Malton is a leading centre for racehorse training but unfortunately for Penrith they were never at the races. They stood off the home side, allowed them to come on to them and dictate the play and ended up being lucky to come away with a four try bonus point.
The home side started strongly, taking the play to the visitors, ran hard into contact and made ground every time they moved the ball and were soon hammering on the Penrith line and soon scored the opening try. Malton nearly scored again straight away afterwards but knocked on and it was Penrith, against the run of play who scored next. The ball was spilt in midfield and Jamie McNaughton got a boot to it and hacked the ball from half way almost to the home line, he was chasing hard along with John Fell. Fell and the fullback both went for the ball which spun free and McNaughton was able to gather it and reach for the line just before the cover arrived.
Malton then scored three converted tries in a ten minute period as they piled on the pressure and Penrith seemed unable to stop them on the gain line or kill their momentum, they kept conceding ground and were forever defending in their own 22 as tries came on a regular basis.
They did get a score back from a penalty kicked to the corner as half time approached, the lineout possession was not clean but when the ball came to Brad Taylor, at stand off, he made a nice break and looked as if he might score himself but was held up under the posts, George Graham then went for the line and was stopped just short but got the ball to Lee Chapman who forced his way over.
Malton then hit back with another converted try as they turned the screw once more in the visitor's 22 and turned around 35-12 up. In the same fixture last season the home side had led at the break by a similar margin, 31-7, and gone on to lose as Penrith scored 35 unanswered points in the second half. That never looked like happening this time although Penrith fared,maybe slightly better in the second half.
The Cumbrians were first to score in the second half and had their captain Ed Swale to thank, for an unpromising position in midfield he switched the play and broke up the middle of the field, found Graham who then found Taylor in support who was just about able to outpace the defence to run in from 30 metres out.
Normal service was then resumed as a poor clearance kick to the lively Malton fullback led to the home side's next try and an interception gifted the next.
Penrith's only hope now for something out of the afternoon's proceeding s was a four try bonus point and they did have a period of possession in the home 22 as they tried to force the score. It was Swale who made the break that got them on to the home line and allowed the forwards to batter the line. Young John Dent finally got the score as he dived over the ruck to get the touchdown. That was almost the end of it but Malton were given another interception try to get them to the 50 point mark to end a miserable afternoon for the men from Cumbria.
It was a display best forgotten but one that has to be learned from, you cannot compete at a reasonable level if you do not get in the faces of the opposition and match them physically all over the field. They will all be looking forward to 3.00pm next Saturday to set the record straight.