Penrith resumed their league campaign after a five week break against a Dinnington side sitting third from the bottom of the table, the Winters Park men had lost two games to frost in December followed by the two game seasonal break and came into the game short of recent match practice and a touch of ring rustiness should have been a shock to no one.
They had, however beaten Dinnington handsomely away from home earlier in the season but the unforgettable first half that followed showed little signs of that superiority. To be fair to the visitors, although they showed little in attack they defended as if their lives depended on it and much better than they had in the earlier game to keep the home side at bay and thoroughly frustrated for the first half. Penrith had the monopoly of possession and territorial advantage but failed to turn it into points.
Their recent shortage of game time and lack of training over the festive period saw them struggle to piece together any fluid, flowing rugby and fail to build any real pressure on the visitors. There was no lack of effort and they went close on a number of occasions but a dropped pass, wrong decision or turn over took the pace out of their game and allowed the South Yorkshire men the chance to clear their lines
Jay Rossi had had a decent run or two in the centre, Brad Taylor was tackled into touch at the corner and Mike Raine had a dangerous break from a scrum close to the line but they had all come to nothing. They had won several attacking lineouts close to the visitors' line they could not strong arm their pack, George Graham on his first game back from injury had been busy but hadn't quite managed the killer break. So at the break neither side had got on the scoreboard but it was the home side who had looked the much more likely.
That all changed at the start of the second half, Dinnington showed a side to their game not seen in the opening forty minutes and opened the game out with intent and took the home side by surprised and after taking the kick off moved the ball with a bit of pace from right to left to make half way, then stunned their hosts by moving the ball right finding the gap to score an excellent try and added the conversion. Penrith who had showed no real form in the match so far would now have to chase the game.
Dinnington with their noses in front now returned to type and did their very best to frustrate their hosts, they are kings of the "time outs". They seemed to be interminably in discussion with the referee, discussing lineout calls among themselves, lying down injured or walking to the breakdowns. Their whole intent seemed to be to play as few of the allotted 80 minutes as possible and they are very adept at it. They also, to their credit defended like demons in their attempt to get something out of the game.
Their attempts to frustrate the home side got them on the wrong side of the referee, they lost a man with a yellow card for punching and were then down to 13 after suffering another yellow card for infringing in the red zone when Penrith looked on the verge of scoring. The home side otped for the 5m scrum from the penalty following the second yellow and from steady scrummage ball Raine broke from No8, forced his way over to claim the try on his 200th appearance for the club. The conversion, though was missed and Penrith trailed by two points.
The Cumbrians' play with a try under their belt start to look a little more fluid, although still far from their best another try did look in the offing. Ross Jackson looked to be clean through when play was pulled back for an injury and a dropped pass saw another dangerous attack falter. It was left to the forwards to get their side in front and after battering the stubborn visitors' defence with drive after drive it was Will Morgan who barrelled over for the vital score. Young Bruce Spencer on the wing as a replacement knocked the conversion over and Penrith led 12-7.
There was quarter of an hour left and the home side, with the game seemingly won now looked for a further two tries to secure a bonus point. Jamie McNaughton almost provided the opportunity with a telling break but the ball did not get to the support but when he and Jon Fell ran back a clearance kick they did manage a third score. McNaughton made the 22 on the left and the ball was run in coming back right. Will Morgan found himself in space and straighten the line and he set away captain Ed Swale. He went into contact with the final defender but managed to get the ball away to Spencer on the wing outside him who sprinted the 20 yards to the corner.
Penrith were again frustrated by the visitors who kept possession of the ball in the closing minutes and they finally got something for their afternoon's efforts when they struck a long range penalty to move within seven points of Penrith and earn themselves a losing bonus point. No one from Penrith begrudged them their point which their tenacity had earned them, it was about the right result on the play. It had been a frustrating afternoon which at one stage had looked like going completely the wrong way but the team had stuck in and got the result albeit that it was not very pleasing on the eye.