Penrith travelled to Lymm and played their full part in a very poor game of rugby. It was an error strewn game littered with wrong options, numerous penalties and some crazy passages of play.
It all started sensibly enough as Lymm dominated possession, the Penrith defence, that has improved as the season has gone on dealt with anything the home side could throw at them but they gave a way a string of needless penalties. This first enabled Lymm to play in Penrith territory and then enabled them to take a six point lead as they took two penalty chances.
The game had no pattern to it at all and it was then the home sides turn to transgress and Steve Wood halved the lead with a penalty of his own, he then had chance to level the scores but his effort went wide. Penrith than had a period of dominance and spent some time in the home 22, Neil Warnock went close with the best break of the day and they really should have come away with something. Two tap penalties were wasted close to the line and when a throw in to an attacking 5m lineout was not straight the home side were able to lift the siege.
The Cumbrians were pleased to end the first period only three points in arrears as they desperately defended their own line as the half ended. They defended a 5m scrum with only seven forwards on the field as Gary Hodgson had been yellow carded for a technical offence and Lymm had a number of rucks and mauls on the line but couldn’t quite get over. They were held up over the line and Penrith kept their line intact, just.
The second half was not much different, neither side seemed to want the ball for any length of time, there was rarely more than two or three phases of play before possession was needlessly conceded and it could have gone either way.
The defining point of the game came after quarter of an hour of the second half when the home side kicked a penalty to the corner for a 5m lineout and drove the ensuing maul over for the only try of the game. Not a very thrilling try in an anything but thrilling game. The conversion put Lymm ten points ahead and although Wood got a second penalty to move Penrith to within a score the home side countered with another of their own to counter it and ensure they came away with nothing, not even a losing bonus point.
As the game wore on Penrith tried to force the play more and more when in possession and were playing joke rugby, it was the sort of thing you might expect to see on a Sunday afternoon with nothing at stake, no hope passes were being played out of contact, people were throwing passes between their legs and enormous miss passes were thrown at no one in particular. It seemed like blind panic rather than try to build a bit of pressure, string some phases together and force the opposition on to the back foot. The side have always scored tries so there is no need to try and score every time you get hold of the ball. They didn’t score a try this afternoon!
The Penrith side did have quite a few changes but the players coming into the side are genuine first team players and they weren’t the ones failing to use their heads. Birkenhead Park visit Winters Park this week and although they are bottom of the league their only two wins have come in recent weeks. It’s back to basics.