Penrith kick started their season on Saturday with a home win by the slimmest of margins. It was far from a vintage performance but after the carnage of the week before when they shipped 81 points it was a great improvement, hopefully it will give them confidence and they will be able to build on it and up the ante next week away at Burnage.
Penrith started the game pretty slowly and made mistakes to allow themselves to be put under unnecessary pressure. Phil Fell made an excellent try saving tackle in the corner and forced his man into touch but from the resulting lineout the home side threw to the tail and lost possession. Billingham moved the ball into midfield, drew in the cover, then quickly moved the ball wide for the right winger to go over in the corner for an unconverted try.
There was very little between the sides and as the game went from end to end Penrith visibly grew in confidence and came more and more to the fore. Midway through the half they were becoming dominant and within two minutes the visitors had transgressed twice and twice captain Steve Wood punished them with successful penalty shots to edge his side ahead 6-5. Penrith were now playing the game in the visitor’s 22 and were creating a number of chances they could not quite finish. A clear overlap was missed, James Thornton almost put Kris Bratton in at the corner and it was looking as if they were going to miss out when they had the put into the scrum on the 10m line. Mike Raine picked up from the base and broke the first up line of defence, a rampant Ryan Johnson took play to the line, when the ball came back and was moved left Gavin Young put Wood away who stepped back inside the tackler to score.
The try went unconverted but Penrith had a 11-5 half time lead and looked good value, it was though, to be the proverbial game of two halves and Penrith spent most of the second period on the back foot.
Billingham look to play fast open rugby and the more broken the game the better they look, they caught the home side out early in the second half with a quickly taken penalty deep in their own 22. The Winters Park men were scrambling in defence and only just managed to snuff out the attack, Paul Newton was yellow carded for killing the ball and they then had to withstand ten minutes of real pressure in their 22 when down to 14 men.
The forwards stepped up to the mark, they had been rather under the cosh in the set scrums up to this point but on two occasions, on their own line, drove the visitors off their own ball to keep their line intact. There was some first-rate last ditch tackling as they held grimly on but the line was eventually broken when the right winger claimed his second try. He caught a neat chip ahead on the full and scampered in at the corner for an unconverted try.
Penrith’s lead was down to one point and the visitors continued to press, with 20 minutes to go they goaled a penalty for a 11-13 advantage and Penrith strove to get back into the game. They were still struggling to cut out the mistakes were playing deep in their own half where better options and better kicking would have seen them playing much higher up the pitch.
As the game wore on they did claw themselves up the field, Mike Hawley was unlucky to be pulled back for a forward pass with the line at his mercy. This chance was possible because of the line breaking running of Johnson, he was involved again as the game slipped into added time and Hawley was away again. This time he had four defenders bearing down on him on the 22, he chipped ahead and was clearly winning the race for the touchdown when he was cynically hauled down. The penalty was awarded three minutes into added time Wood kept his nerve and chipped the penalty over. The drama was not over though, playing the final play of the game Penrith were penalised and Billingham had a penalty chance from close to the half way line. It was a big ask and fell well short. Hawley caught the ball, banged it into touch, the final whistle went and Penrith can plan the rest of their season with a bit more confidence.
They were a long way from firing on all cylinders but there were plenty of good points. James Thornton, playing his first game of the season added some physicality, new vice captain Ryan Johnson got himself wound up and was a real handful, Kris Bratton and Ben Littleton continued to impress and Newton and Raine’s experience saw the side home. Mention must be made of Gavin Young who stepped in at the last minute with little or no preparation and shored up the defence to some effect.