Penrith's recent form had seen them climbing away from the relegation
zone but this defeat at fellow strugglers Burnage put them right back
in the dogfight at the foot of the table. It was one of the few games
played in the north due to the severe frost, it was only made possible
because of the home side's artificial pitch but conditions were still
far from ideal. It was bitterly cold with snow whitening the pitch
making it necessary to brush some of the lines before the game, they
were tough circumstances and in the main the visitors didn't seem to
fancy it
much.
Burnage started with the breeze at their backs and tore into the
visitors, desperate defence was the order of the day and Penrith were
very much on the back foot. The home side missed a kickable penalty
after five minutes and shortly after were gift wrapped a seven point
lead, Steve Wood attempted to chip the ball out of his own 22 into the
space behind the onrushing back line but only managed to chip it to the
hands of the on running centre who had a clear run to the line.
Burnage were warming to their task and although their rugby was pretty
one dimensional and just what was expected it was good enough, Penrith
struggled to contain their strong running centres who kept it simple
and were very direct and created holes in the defence for the whole 80
minutes, the home openside flanker also had a good afternoon making
great yardage and breaking tackles for fun.
The next home score came when Penrith's rearguard failed to stem a
charge from a home centre from 10m out, they were 14 points up in as
many minutes and the outlook for the visitors did not look good. They
did however, manage to stem the tide and play a little bit of rugby
themselves. James Ellar made a break from his own 22, chipped the ball
ahead and when the home defence eventually managed to scramble the ball
away
the clearance kick landed in the hands of Mike Hawley, he ran the ball
back and when the ball came to Wood his looped pass went wide to Gary
Hodgson who picked his way through a couple of tacklers to score.
Penrith now had a toe hold in the game and with four minutes to go to
half time the battling Billy Barton gave them a real chance. The
thrower missed his man in a lineout on the home 22 and the ball fell to
Barton who ran over the top of the scrum half before going over in the
corner. They now had a chance at only 14-10 down but poor tackling was
again responsible for their downfall as the home backs broke the line
far too easily to score in the corner.
Penrith turned around at 19-10 down but even with the breeze at their
backs
make little impression in the second half, play was almost
entirely in their half and apart from a couple of kick and chases when
Jon Fell and then James Ellar made good yards they never had a sniff of
the home line. They spent the half defending and perhaps earned some
credit for conceeding only one try, this was when Burnage showed
good continuity and put together several phases of decent of rugby to
break the Cumbrian's line. A penalty in the final minute extended their
lead, the four tries they accrued gave them a bonus point that saw them
climb above Penrith in the table and leave the Cumbrian one place and
four points above the relegation zone, plenty of fingernails to be
bitten in the coming weeks!
This was Penrith's first foray on to a plastic pitch and the cold
seemed to get to the knees of those who had been doing the tackling,
captain Mike Raine's knees were well bloodied but none were bloodier
than scrum half Paul Newton who had given an object leson all afternoon
on how to bring down hard strong runners, even if they are much bigger
than you. He was Penrith's man of the match by a country mile.
Penrith have to put this performance out of their mind and look forward
to the visit of second place Rossendale next week, they have a habit of
saving their better displays for the better teams and are quite capable
of coming out next week and playing like heros and putting Rossendale
to the sword!