It's not very often at the end of a game of rugby the victors trudge off the field with their heads down and the losers are elated but that is what happened on Saturday. Penrith's young side had scored with two minutes left on the clock and then scored again deep into added time to earn a four try bonus point and a losing bonus point which was no less than their performance deserved.
Coach David Preston had had a fraught week putting his side together, it had been said the club had put out their strongest side of the season the week before but he was without eight of those players for various reasons. He relied heavily on the younger end of his squad and fielded five teenagers but his trials and tribulations were not over on Friday when he named his side. Travelling to the game it came to light replacement hooker Ian McDowell could not travel because of an accident at work and after frantic calls off the coach on the M6 veteran 47 year old prop James Lund came to the rescue and turned up just in time for kick off.
Penrith started brightly against a much bigger side, without exaggeration the visitor's forwards on average would be two to three stones lighter than their opposite numbers and be giving them two to three inches in height but what they lacked in stature they made up for in tenacity. The box kick was the home side's weapon of choice and Scott Lancaster used his cricketing skills to field the first one and set up a promising attack but it was the hosts who scored first with a well taken try in the corner.
The young Cumbrian side went toe to toe with their more experienced opponents and were matching them but there was no getting away from the size and strength advantage. The visitor's discipline on the whole was good but they did conceded a penalty that was kicked to the corner, if the host's big forwards worked the catch and drive correctly from the lineout there would be little the Penrith forwards could do to stop them and that is exactly what happened.
The visitor's most experienced player, George Graham, filled in at stand off which allowed young colt Hugh Burne to start in his favoured position of scrum half where he had a super game. The home defence lived on the offside line all afternoon and sometimes over it but it was their downfall for Penrith's first try as they were past Graham before he received the ball and he was able to get clean away. He took the ball to the 22 before linking with Jay Rossi whose looped pass found Fraser Nicolson out wide, he stepped back inside and was caught by the cover but Burne was on hand to gather the ball and draw the last man to put Dylan Cowperthwaite in at the corner.
If Penrith could be criticised it was on the half hour when a player from either side went to field a box kick, the ball came off them and was taken by a Penrith player who was deemed to be offside, if the ball had come off the home player there was no offence but that was not how the referee saw it and two players were yellow carded for questioning the decision, Graham and Craig Price, and Penrith had the 10 minutes until half time to play with 13 men.
Lund's trip down the motorway had not been in vain as he was brought on to make up the scrum and almost immediately the numbers counted as Altricham scored their third try. To their credit the 13 men then rolled their sleeves up and had much the better of the remaining minutes and were unlucky not to score finishing the half on the home line.
Altrincham's forwards might have tired but early in the second half it was the lighter Penrith pack under pressure, they had them penned in their own 22 and the effort of battling against a much bigger pack looked to be taking its toll. They defended stoutly but after several near misses and a disallowed try the home No8 eventually went over from a 5m scrum.
The game went into the final quarter and the home pack did look as if they were starting to tire and the visitors had good field position deep in their 22, they went through phase after phase as they tried to wear down the home defence throwing themselves into contact but it was dummy run from Olly Gutteridge and a little show and go from Rossi that created the gap and Rossi was through to score. Penrith were within 12 points and a come back was on the cards but it looked to be killed off when the visitors lost the ball running it back from the restart and two phases later Altrincham had reestablished their lead.
That didn't lessen the Penrith effort as they continued to throw themselves at the tiring home rearguard with just minutes left on the clock. With two minutes of real time left Penrith were battering the Altrincham line and when Graham eased Nicolson into a gap he was over to score and his side now trailed by 12 points again, another try would see Penrith win two bonus points.
Penrith were on the offensive from the restart and were helped by the home side's ill discipline as they offended trying to kill the ball and Penrith ran three penalties in quick succession until they were again battering the home line, something had to give and a Graham show inside to Gutteridge saw the gap open and he shot in under the posts to great jubilation. It wasn't a win but after a very difficult week it certainly felt like it.
There were excellent performances throughout the Penrith side and all the youngsters did their reputations the power of good but Lancaster was outstanding, with so many experienced players missing he took up the mantle of senior professional and was everywhere in attack and defence making his presence felt.