This was a poor day at the office for Penrith as they suffered their third away defeat of the season, they had played pretty well in defeat the week before at, now, top of the table Morpeth but this was another matter. They were 17-5 down after 20 minutes and the game was effectively lost against fourth placed West Leeds who were not likely to let their advantage slip, especially as they were at home with a vociferous crowd cheering them on and Penrith's away form has been intermittent at best.
They then had a chaotic final ten minutes where they conceded three tries to give the home side a try bonus point and a boost to their points difference. The frustrating thing for the visiting coaching team is that in the 50 minutes in between the game was closely fought with their side giving as good as they got and only excellent defence by the home team stopping them from getting back into the game.
The Cumbrians did start badly though, they made far too many errors and West Leeds were good enough to take advantage. They opened the scoring with a well struck penalty following an infringement at the set scrum, the visitors were then guilty of allowing the hosts to score from the restart and in the blink of an eye they were ten points down.
Penrith were the next to score, they were attacking deep in the Leeds half when they lost the ball and play swept back into their 22, the home side looked favourites to add to their tally but a pass went to ground, Dan Richardson was sharp enough to get it gathered and Jon Fell and Jamie McNaughton were able to combine to run the length of the field for McNaughton to score.
Penrith fell further behind when they fell off a routine tackle in midfield and conceded an easy converted try and a high tackle in front of the posts gave the home side an easy penalty shot and they were 20-5 to the good. The Winters Park men then staged a fight back and were unlucky not to score just before half time. They kicked a penalty to the corner, won the lineout but the forwards could not force their way over, the ball was spun wide to the right and Brad Taylor looked as if he was going to go over in the corner until a last ditch tackle took him into the corner flag, a try at that stage might have altered the state of the game but it was not to be.
Penrith started the second half well but West Leeds continued to defend with passion and hold them at bay, an enormous clearance kick by school boy scrum half Bruce Spencer was latched on to by Fell and regained possession in an attacking position and when the home side were penalised the ball was kicked to the corner. The visitors had the throw into two attacking lineouts in succession but could not break down the home rearguard.
Penrith continued to have their share of field position and possession and there was a glimmer of hope they might get something out of the game but the final ten minutes put paid to that.
The forwards failed to halt the drive from a lineout on the 22 and conceded a try, a quick throw into the lineout caught them unawares for the bonus point try and a misplaced Penrith pass gifted them a fifth.
It is very easy to be negative in these circumstances but Penrith were short of the backbone of their side, this season's first choice 8, 9 and 10 were missing. Young Spencer made a good showing on his first senior start but on the whole it will be a day much better forgotten as long as the lessons are learnt.