Penrith did the double on Burnage last Saturday to ease, for the present, their relegation worries. Had they lost however they would have been sitting fourth from bottom one place away from relegation so congested and close is the middle of the league table. They eventually ran out reasonably comfortable winner but not before having to fight back from a seven point deficit and also contend with a string of injuries and forced substitutions.
Penrith were guilty of making too many unforced errors in the early stages and gave the initiative to the visitors, they had to defend deep in their own half and the siege was finally lifted when James Sanderson at inside centre stopped his opposite number dead in his tracks, the ball span loose and Paul Newton was alert to the situation, gathered the ball and made the break to over half way. His link pass didn’t quite find its target but the home side were now on the front foot, good work by Ian McDowell and Ed Swale took play to the Burnage line and the pressure was on. They defended robustly but Steve Wood unpicked them, found James Thornton running on the diagonal and the hard running hooker barrelled over. Wood knocked over the conversion and Penrith looked as if they were away.
Only five minutes later they let the visitors back into the game with the softest of tries, they were defending in their own 22 but were holding firm when inexplicably the stand off was allowed to break the line in front of the posts without a hand being laid on him, he added a simple conversion to level the scores.
Penrith then almost took the lead with a sweeping move down the right, Gary Hodgson and Ryan Johnson both broke tackles before releasing Mike Hawley, he drew the last man with Jon Fell on his shoulder but the pass went astray. Swale and man of the match Ben Littleton then combined to run back a clearance kick and took play into the visitors 22, the over eager defence were then caught offside and Wood’s successful penalty edged the home side ahead.
Penrith were penalised in the middle of the field and the penalty was kicked to touch on the 22, Burnage won the lineout and their forwards rumbled inexorably towards the home line, each time they ran the ball they only made them inches but they did it time after time till they were on the Penrith line. With the cover sucked in they finally released the ball and there was plenty of space out wide for the centre to score.
Penrith then lost influential No8 Mike Raine with a back injury to be replaced by Phil Gardham who rose to the occasion and probably had his best game in a Penrith shirt; he made his mark in the lineout and got about the pitch. It was the visitors who were to score next and the try was in similar style to their second, they forwards battered the line to pull in the cover before releasing the backs, this time their was some cover but the tackle was missed and the lead stretched to seven points.
Penrith looked a little forlorn and had Swale to thank for getting them right back into the game and lifting their spirits. Burnage received the restart, kicked it long and Swale gathered and ran it back in his frantic style, he looked to have gone up a blind alley and should have been scragged a couple of time but emerged in the visitors 22 with ball in hand and found Newton who put Littleton in space on the touchline and he dived in at the corner.
The lead was down to two points and on the stroke of half time Penrith regained the advantage. Livewire Littleton had the visitors on the retreat with a kick and chase, he caught the last defender and first on the scene, as he often is was James Hogg, the defender under pressure did not release the ball and Wood put over the resulting penalty and the Cumbrians had a one point cushion at the break.
The second half was a different affair. Play was almost exclusively in the visitor’s half and the Penrith line was rarely threatened as they took the game by the scruff of the neck. They had to contend with losing James Thornton with a hamstring pull but were able to score a couple of tries to make the game safe and also to claim a try scoring bonus point.
The first came when they won turnover ball about 30m from the line, Hodgson ran it up the short side and the ball came to Craig Price, he had been tasked by the coach before the game to make two 10m runs, this is about exactly what he did before finding Johnson on his inside and the big man barged his way over. Hawley was the architect of the fourth try, he fielded an up and under ran one way then the other, evaded several tackles before going to ground, the recycled ball came to Wood who had Littleton screaming at him to chip the defensive line as there was no fullback. Wood put the ball beautifully into the space, Littleton hit the gas, left the chasers for dead and hacked the ball on gather and score on the line, job done.
As the game ran its course any hope the visitors had was squeezed out of them by Wood and Hawley’s line kicking which ensured the final minutes were played out deep in their half. A good win that gives them some well earned breathing space.
A pleasing aspect of this season and this game typifies it is the improvement of parts of the sides play which was poor at the start of the season. Set plays and first up tackling left a lot to be desired in September but that is definitely not the case now and the whole coaching team can take a lot of credit for that. Beef Robinson, Phil Graham and Bill Laidlaw have all played their part.