PENRITH 17 BIRKENHEAD PARK 5

The Winters Park faithful went home happy on Saturday after watching their side's best performance of the season by some distance. High flying Birkenhead Park had arrived second in the league with only one loss to their name but had no answer for the majority of the game against a bullish Penrith side.
David Preston had to patch his pack together once more but the introduction of Mike Stephens, James Hogg and Tom Lindsay certainly upped the physicality of his forwards, they were up for a battle which is what they expected against Birkenhead who are always a strong, big,well drilled side.
It was a confident Birkenhead side that started the better of the two and they bossed the early possession and looked the more dangerous, they scored in the fifth minute when strong running saw a break down their right flank deep into the home 22. Once in behind the majority of the home defenders they took advantage of position and worked an overlap in the corner to force the score. The conversion went across the front of the posts as the rare southerly wind held up the ball.
This early score did not dent the home side's belief as they then had a decent spell themselves, they leveled the score from a scrum on the visitor's 22, George Graham fed the ball direct to inside centre Matt Allinson who set off on the charge. His opposite number looked to set himself for the tackle but inexplicably lost his feet, fell over, and left Allinson with a gap a mile wide which he hit and went under the posts without a hand being laid on him. His simple conversion gave his side a two point lead.
Penrith then tried to turn the screw, they had two attacking lineouts close to the opposition line, hooker Craig Price hit Liam Tunstall jumping in the middle of the line both times and they were within inches of scoring on both occasions with the driven maul. Although the Penrith eight struggled a little for the first time this season in the set scrum they did win one against the head on the Wirral side's 22, Stephens playing at No 8 was away like a shot, Graham was in support but they couldn't quite make the line.
Going through the phases Penrith got in a good position after good running by Tunstall and Dan Greenwood, there were opposition hands in the ruck which the referee spotted and Allinson opted to go for the penalty from some 30m out. He struck the ball nicely and it sailed over with ease with a following wind. That was the Cumbrians 10-5 up and that was the score at the break.
Penrith were to dominate the second half, they never looked like conceding and although Birkenhead had their share of possession the dogged home defence always looked to have the situation under control. Allinson put a long raking touch finder into the visitor's 22, they were then penalised at the lineout and Allinson had a second penalty attempt. He couldn't have been much closed but his effort rattled back off the post.
Penrith were only one score ahead but they eased the nerves as the game went into the final quarter, a mazy Jamie McNaughton run back got them field position in the opposition 22. Stephens won the lineout ball, Ross Jackson fed the ball back inside to McNaughton coming in off the blindside wing. He made a bit of ground in traffic before the ball was quickly recycled and whipped rapidly wide to the left, Jay Rossi got round the outside of his man and then engineered the space for Brad Taylor to go in at the corner.
Allinson hit a well judged conversion and that was just about it. There was a scare in the final minutes when the visitors got behind the Penrith defence but the ball was knocked on and after the restart scrum Graham was able to bang the ball into touch to complete a thoroughly satisfying afternoon for an improving Penrith side.
There were plenty of positives, the return of Stephens after over a season's absence bolstered the side's tenacity and the second half saw the introduction of Kiwi Ryan Lee into the front row who is new to the club having only flew into the country days earlier and he certainly laid down a marker. It will be interesting to see if this improvement can be rolled forward into what will be a difficult trip to Douglas on the Isle of Man next time out.