An out of sorts Penrith completed their fixtures for 2013 at Billingham
and slumped to their eighth straight defeat in a row, this leaves them
in joint bottom place at the foot of the league and a mountain to climb
in the new year if they are to maintain their Level 5 status, they are
eight points and two wins away from safety.
The game as a contest was almost over before it began, Penrith received
the kick off, allowed it to bounce and playing into a strong wind
attempted to run it out of their own 22, they were held up and the home
side were awarded the put in to the resultant scrummage. They struck
the ball cleanly and it shot out of the back of the scrum, they were
sharp enough to tidy the possession up, attack down the narrow side and
scored with ease.
This was the first piece of possession they had received and they had
manufactured a score. They received the restart and as is the
Billingham style ran it back, several phase later they were on the
Penrith line and scored with their second piece of possession. They
continued to run the ball in the same style and scored the next time
they got the ball, the third time, and then the fifth time. They only
failed to score the fourth time because they kicked the ball away!
At this stage 15 minutes had elapsed and the score line was 26-0 in
favour of the home side, there was an awful lot of time left in the
game and a complete capitulation looked on the cards but Penrith did
rally to some extent. They did get a grip of themselves and stem the
tide of tries and try to put together some attacking play of their own.
Confidence is a wonderful thing and a great deal of sport is played in
the mind. Penrith are on a woeful run and their confidence is at rock
bottom and mistakes in the conditions seemed inevitable, the hosts were
flinging the ball about in the gale force wind and everything seemed to
go to hand but that's the way it goes. The Cumbrians did stick to their
task although it was obvious there would be nothing in the game for
them and restricted the home side to one more score before the break.
Penrith at least had the wind at their backs in the second half and
were able to use it to play most of the game away from their own line.
They did concede a further three tries in the second half but there was
one bright moment when they were pressing on the home line, they lost
the ball but the clearance into the wind landed in the hands of Josh
Dowson making his senior debut and the 37th player to represent Penrith
in the league this season. He ran the ball back with some purpose, beat
a couple of defenders and then found Sandy Kerridge on the right who
ran the try in and ensured they did not come away entirely empty handed.
It was a poor performance and although they were poor the heads did not
go down and they did keep trying, the finger could be pointed at no one
in particular it just needs the whole side to step up to the mark. The
two week Christmas break will do no harm, they then face fellow
strugglers Bradford and Bingley on the first Saturday in 2014 and a win
could put the wind back in their sails and kick start a revival and
recovery of confidence that is so badly needed.