Penrith's game at Rossendale followed the same pattern as those of
recent weeks. They played well enough, gave their all, their youngsters
again acquitted themselves excellently and they were competitive for
ninety odd percent of the game but could not boss the game enough to
fashion a win.
The Rossendale pitch was in much better condition than of late
especially in view of the wet weather the whole area has suffered in
recent months, it has a pretty severe slope on it and Penrith had the
advantage of playing downhill in the first half although they did face
the slight breeze.
Penrith had a much happier afternoon then many recently in the set
scrum and even won the first scrum against the head more than holding
their own down the slope. They soon had field position in the home 22
and were unlucky not to take the lead when teenage winger Jamie
McNaughton was just squeezed out as he went over in the corner after a
sweeping move.
The home side also had a couple of close calls to take the lead, the
best when the fullback chipped the first wave of defence, gathered his
kick and the tried to chip and chase over the fullback's head, the
cover just about caught up with him. As half time approached the
Lancashire outfit were turning the screw, They kicked a penalty to the
corner and although that attack was repulsed they then had a 5m scrum.
They secured their put in and after several phases worked an opening
near the posts and darted in for a converted try.
With a minute or two to go to the break Penrith threw themselves on to
the attack. They lost possession of the ball but the attempted
clearance went to Mike Hawley, he threw a long cross field pass to
McNaughton who is never frightened of running at the opposition, he
beat a couple of tacklers before looking for support, Mike Fearon took
the ball on and gave him the ball back. The young winger looked like
being run into touch on the 22 but chipped the ball ahead in behind the
cover and set off in hot pursuit. He was beaten to the ball but the
last defender was unable to control it and McNaughton was up quickly
and was able to snap up the ball and dive over. Fearon's accurate spot
kick meant the teams turned around level at the break and for the
second week Penrith had scored on the stroke of half time and not
conceded!
The home side clearly relished playing down the slope in the second
half and were on the attack immediately. They scored after only six
minutes and Penrith were under the cosh. They didn't help themselves on
10 minutes when Hawley got himself poorly yellow carded for an
appalling high tackle. The home side kicked the resultant penalty into
the corner and scored with a catch and drive from the ensuing lineout.
They then scored another try before his 10 minutes on the touchline was
up, this was a bit of a soft affair with their scrum half throwing a
dummy on the half way line which half the team fell for before drawing
the final man to set up the try.
The Cumbrians then got the bit between their teeth again and battled
hard for the rest of the game, the home side however were happy the
game and five points were in the bag and were content to see the game
out.
Another case of beaten but not disgraced, although Penrith had resigned
themselves to relegation a while ago it is now a mathematical fact so
serious thoughts now turn to the county cup and plans for next season.