PENRITH 0 VALE 12

Penrith's young much changed side battled hard and showed great spirit in atrocious conditions and were unfortunate not to get something out of their home game against Vale of Lune. Weather conditions at Winters Park deteriorated rapidly on Saturday morning as "Storm Dennis" blew in and by mid afternoon the rain was torrential and the wind forecast to be at least 50mph gusted at much more than that with the posts waving wildly in the gale.
The Lancaster club had made it up the M6 over Shap and the game started on schedule at 3.00pm, the quality of play was a credit to the players on both sides as the game unfolded and although it was massively affected by the weather when the ball was in the air the handling was generally sound. Conditions were of course aided by the surface of the pitch at Winters Park which being artificial grass remained perfect throughout. Any natural surface would very soon have been a quagmire.
Vale had first use of the strong wind and although it was to their advantage it did turn the game into a lottery and didn't have that great an influence on the game. It was Penrith who started the better but couldn't take advantage of a couple of attacking lineouts deep in the Vale 22. There was little between the two sides as the match developed with both defences holding firm. There were few line breaks but the Vale No8 did get clean away on half way but was caught in the 22 and the danger averted.
The home side since, the turn of the year, have struggled with availability for a number of reasons, injuries have taken their toll along with holidays, work and family commitments and they blooded two new players on the day. Dalton Frith at scrum half and Kyle Adams on the wing made their debuts and were the 46th and 47th players to pull on the Penrith first team shirt this season and both performed admirably, Frith in particular was outstanding in the conditions and was a threat throughout the game.
Neither side threatened much initially but the visitors opened the scoring after half an hour, a Penrith pass went astray as they attempted to clear their line and went dead in the dead ball area for an attacking 5m scrum. The visitors had had much the better of the set scrums at this stage although the home eight got the upper hand as the game progressed but Vale would have fancied their chances of a pushover. Penrith set themselves and held the scrum but the scrum half picked and sharply went and made the line easily. The conversion blew way off line but Vale had a vital five point lead.
Penrith in the final minutes of the first half had their best attacking period of the game, with Dan Richardson to the fore they got themselves over the line twice but were held up on both occasions. They had two penalties deep in the visitors 22 but couldn't force their way over as Vale desperately defended. Penrith have now lost their last two home games conceding 12 and 15 points, normally this would not be a problem, in the 13 games before Christmas they had picked up 11 four try bonus points but the loss of players, especially behind the scrum has made them a much blunter instrument.
They turned round only five points down with the wind at their backs but failed to take any real advantage and it was the visitors who were in the ascendancy for most of the second period. The nearest Penrith came to breaking the deadlock was midway through the half when Will Morgan made two charges on the Vale 22 and looked to have broken through on both occasions but was just to say clung on to.
Play was deep into stoppage time and the home side were gamely still looking for the score to get them back into the game, they ran the ball out of their own 22 and got to half way. A floated pass was then held up by the wind and fell to the visitor's winger who had the pace to make the line and the losing bonus point the young home side richly deserved slipped from their grasp.