The Winters Park faithful went home happy on Saturday as Penrith
claimed their first win of the season and a winning bonus point to boot
in what was their best display of the campaign thus far. Although
pretty emphatic in the end it was not all plain sailing as they trailed
21-11 just before the break.
They couldn't have got a better start, within 60 seconds they were on
the scoreboard. Ed Swale collected a poor clearance kick, fed Jon Fell
on the run who broke a tackle as he hit the 22 and he in turn put away
Ben Littleton up from fullback in support on the outside whose electric
pace took him in at the corner.
They then let Burnage back into the game with two soft tries, they gave
two penalties away in quick succession, the second of which was spun in
the home 22 and the defence was caught on the hop and beaten by a
simple overlap. The second try came as the home pack lost a scrum
against the head on their 22, the ball came to their squat centre who
just seemed to saunter through a massive gap and in under the posts.
Both tries were converted and Penrith trailed 5-14.
The visitors had the chance to go further ahead but their penalty shot
came back off the post. Penrith were incurring the wrath of the referee
and giving a number of penalties away, it was midway through the first
period before they were awarded one of their own and it seemed to lift
their game.
Swale kicked them into the 22 and strong runs from Gary Hodgson and
James Thornton put the visitors under pressure, they transgressed again
and Littleton kicked the resultant penalty to close the gap. He was
accurate again with a second penalty attempt and the deficit was down
to three points.
Just as they appeared to be getting right back into the game they
conceded again and again from a scrum lost against the head. This time
it was the stand off who was allowed to shrug off several tacklers
before being finally stopped just short of the line, he was able to
slip the ball to the flanker in support who was Penrith's own George
Birtle who is down there at university, the conversion left Penrith
trailing by 10 points with half time approaching.
Penrith have an unfortunate habit of conceding tries on the stroke of
half time but couldn't afford to here, to their credit it was the
minutes before half time that swung the game as they scored two
sweeping tries. The first came as the Cumbrians won turnover ball on
the Burnage 22, Newton at outside half caught the defence napping and
made the initial break, he was caught but was able to play the ball out
of the tackle to Phil Armstrong in support on his inside and Armstrong
now finding his feet at level 5 sped in under the posts.
In added time Burnage ran the ball into the home half but their winger
spilt the ball, Fell hacked the ball forward and it sat up nicely for
him to sprint on to, he is nothing if not quick and he ran over half
the length of the pitch with ball in hand easily outstripping the
cover.
With Littleton's two conversions Penrith turned around 25-21 up and
never looked back, they completely dominated the second half with
Burnage rarely getting out of their own half. They put increasing
pressure
on the visitors and they reacted by giving away an increasing number of
penalties and conceding two yellow cards. This enabled Swale to keep
his forwards battering away in the visitors 22 rather than
defending and they had various opportunities from attacking 5m lineouts
and scrums. Burnage held out until 10 minutes from the end, Littleton
chipped the ball to the corner, Fell was up in support but it
was the presence of Mike Stephens who forced the defence to concede yet
another penalty. This time the forwards would be successful as they
tapped and went, Thornton was on hand for the final pick and drive and
claimed the touchdown. Littleton's conversion stretched the lead and
his third penalty pulled it out to 14 points but there was one last
chapter to the game.
Burnage finally got into the home 22 in stoppage time, a converted try
would give them both a four try bonus point and a losing bonus point,
as good as a draw. Their players were all of a sudden reinvigorated but
the home side were not about to have the gloss taken off their
afternoon's efforts. Coach Ian Ghandi Thompson put it as his favourite
part of the game as the rearguard held out with some fierce last ditch
tackling and it was fitting that it was captain Ryan Johnson who came
up with the turnover to end the game. Big Ryan had lead his side by his
massive example with and without the ball all afternoon.
This win sees Penrith jump five places from rock bottom to ninth. Man
of the Match as named by match sponsors AstSigns and Arragons Cycles
was the outstanding Joe Ellis who grafted hard all afternoon in the
second row putting in the hard yards and winning more than one turnover.