Penrith lined up against bottom of the table Birkenhead Park with an almost first choice side, their was talk of a four try bonus point win before the game. That was the theory, the practical turned out to be rather different.
The task in hand was no secret, the visitors are like many sides in this league and have no intention of playing any sort of open attacking rugby, it’s all about playing the percentages, keeping it tight and take your chances when they come your way. Not very exciting but effective if you are good enough at it.
Birkenhead’s form has improved of late and they have won two out of their last three games, albeit at home against sides in the lower half of the league. It was obvious from the start that although their play was very restricted but they would be difficult to beat, they were up for the physical challenge and had no intention of lying down or giving in.
Penrith looked the more dangerous side from the off and went close in the first ten minutes when Scott Harrison just failed to gather a Steve Wood cross kick from a quickly taken penalty. Strong running by James Hogg gained the home side ground down the middle and as Ben Littleton sniped from the breakdown a scrambling defence were penalised. Wood went for goal and his attempt came back off the post only to be knocked on by a defender and Penrith had a 5m scrum. They have had problems with their scrummage this season but not today, No8 Mike Raine took the ball cleanly at the base and powered over under the posts for the opening score. Wood converted and Penrith were away.
The home side looked to build on their lead, a good break by full back Ed Swale followed by a kick and chase saw him and Littleton almost turn over the last defender. Wood rarely misses a penalty chance but he missed a second but was quick to make amends with an interception try from his own half, he read the play beautifully to take the ball and then had just enough pace and plenty of guile to avoid the chasing tacklers.
His conversion pushed the lead out to 14 points and things were going swimmingly. The men from the Wirral though had no intention of giving in and kept plugging away, Penrith would have no problem with them as long as they kept them at arms length, the home side’s first up tackling which had been suspect earlier in the season was excellent and the visitors had got no where near their 22. That is until the final minutes of the first half, indiscipline gave Birkenhead the penalties they needed to get into the home 22 and a penalty kick to the corner set them up with an attacking 5m lineout. They got the ball over the line but were held up so had a 5m scrum. They won the scrum and forced ruck after ruck on the home line until the pressure they created eventually told and they earned themselves a converted try to turn around only 14-7 in arrears.
At the time it looked no more than a blip but in the second half Penrith spurned a host of chances to score, Neil Warnock made a good break and chipped to the corner but neither he or Littleton could get to it, the best chance came to Jon Fell who caught a Wood cross kick on the full and looked as if he had the gas to beat the last defender, he was well tackled just short but the pass back inside to Mike Hawley went down. They over elaborated with long spin passes and fancy moves when sharp simple rugby would have found out an overstretched defence.
Wood struck a penalty to go stretch the lead but the visitors hung on in there and replied with one of their own to keep themselves within a score, Wood missed with another attempt and as the game went into added time Birkenhead were keeping possession of the ball but they were in their own half and offering no threat whatsoever. Mike Stephens, Ryan Johnson and man of the match No8 Raine had been stopping them on the gain line all afternoon so just more of the same for the final minutes and although not quite the win that had been hoped for it would be a solid four points.
The discipline then went out of the window, two penalties were conceded and kicked up the touchline and as the game drew to a close Penrith were defending on their own line. Birkenhead weren’t really dangerous from even ten yards but they kicked themselves with five yards and were dangerous, they won their lineout and the inevitable happened and they rumbled over. Their kicker held his nerve and put an excellent conversion over to level the scores and the home side had thrown away two valuable points.
They had conceded tries in the final plays of both halves simply by giving the penalties away to allow the visitors within striking distance. They now have a week off and then face two difficult games before Christmas, first away to high flying Chester and then home to Sandal in the first game of the second half of the season.