As they lie just above the drop zone every game is vital to a Penrith
side struggling to avoid relegation, they came into this game hoping to
take something as Lymm's recent form has not been good, only winning on
match this calendar year.
The conditions on the day made things difficult for both sides, a
vicious cross wind made kicking a bit of a lottery and fielding the
high ball needed a deal of judgement. The game started with a series of
ping pong kicking but as it settled down the home side had much the
better of things. They made very few unforced errors, ran the ball with
purpose and when they didn't have the ball tackled with some aggression
on the gain line, Penrith made too many mistakes, were unable as a
result to build any pressure on their hosts and spent most of the first
half on the back foot.
It was no surprise after quarter of an hour when the Home side opened
the scoring, after they built a series of phases deep in the Penrith 22
they were able probe out wide, the tackle was missed and the hooker was
in for the try, well converted in the wind. They had the Penrith line
under siege again and desperate defence saw Rob Dawson yellow carded in
the melee, this time they were able to turn the tide and a rare foray
into the Lymm half gave Steve Wood the opportunity to goal a penalty to
cut the lead.
Penrith were still under immense pressure as the home side moved the
ball well and played with real pace, they were doing well to be
restricting the lead to only four points but just before the break Lymm
struck again, two tacklers were shrugged off close to the breakdown on
the Penrith 10m line and once in behind the defence there was no
recovering and the try was run in under the posts.
The second half started as the first had been played, Penrith received
the kick off and knocked on their own 22, Lymm won the scrum, ran
through 18 phases as if they were on the training ground and scored a
well deserved try in the corner. At 19-3 down it was looking like a
very long second half for the Cumbrian contingent and an even longer
ride back up the M6. There was however to be some Cumbrian grit shown
and the catalyst was Mike Hawley, he had struggled with the wind
earlier but took this kick cleanly, stepped a couple of tacklers before
setting off up the left wing. He chipped ahead and then caught the full
back in possession and the home side were penalised at the breakdown.
Wood kicked the penalty to the corner, his forwards won the linout and
drove for the line, the maul was collapsed but James Thornton emerged
with the ball and fed young Craig Price who burrowed his way over the
line. He got a swinging arm across the face for his troubles but was
more than happy with his try. Wood converted in difficult circumstances
and there was now a bit of wind in the Penrith sails. They came
storming back and put Lymm right on the back foot, how a game can
change with a score.
From a scrum on the home 22 Mike Raine put Gary Hodgson away, Hodgson
played the ball out of the tackle back to his captain and Raine was
away and took play almost to the line. The ball was quickly recycled
and moved left and James Ellar was in a foot race to line he wasn't
going to lose, Wood again coverted from wide out and at just 19-17 down
Penrith looked favourites. They threw everything at Lymm, Wood had a
drop goal attempt just miss, He took a tap penalty and kicked it wide
to the waiting Phil Fell who almost managed to step back inside his man
to score. Lymm managed a brief spell in the Penrith half and goaled a
penalty to ease their nerves, they spent the final minutes on their own
line but were good enough to hang on, just!
Penrith did come away with a losing bonus point which eased the pain,
at least until the other results came in, Beverley and Altrincham both
and although they are still just clear of the relegation zone they are
an awful long way from being safe. You can bring out the cliches now,
every game is a cup final.