Penrith's ability to pick up bonus points wins at home continued as they eventually beat Wilmslow reasonably comfortably but only once the game went into the final quarter, the number of points conceded and the time it took them to put the game to bed would not please the coaching staff but you can't do better than a five point win. It was a game for the neutral as the lead changed hands seven times but a nerve jangler for the followers of either side.
Wilmslow came to try and play attractive rugby and that's just what they did, they adopted a high risk strategy continually playing the ball out of contact, it punched a lot of holes in the home defence when the ball went to hand but it put them on the back foot when the ball was spilt. It was a well worked try after quarter of an hour that saw the visitors score first, they ran back a poor clearance kick, kept the ball alive through a number of phases and took a deserved seven point lead.
Penrith struck back immediately when the ball ran loose among the visitors' midfield backs, possession was snapped up by Arran Pamphilon who sped away and found Jamie McNaughton to his right when the cover closed in on him and McNaughton had the pace to make the line, Mike Fearon's conversion levelled the scores. Wilmslow's restart drop out went straight into touch so the forwards went down for the set scrum on the centre spot. Archie Rattray, playing his first senior game at No8, broke right with scrum half Tom Kirk on his shoulder. The defence hesitated expecting the offload to the supporting player but young Rattray sped straight through the gap they had left. He was faced by the full back and he simply found another gear and beat him for pace on the outside to score in the corner, an extraordinary try.
Fearon's touch line conversion went wide but the home side led by five points. The lead didn't last long as Penrith's defence struggled to handle the Wilmslow forwards running and offloading out of the tackle and another well worked converted try saw the visitors lead by two points.
Penrith weren't helping themselves with a number of unforced handling errors but they did retake the lead by the narrowest of margins just before the break with a Fearon penalty. Again the Cumbrians couldn't build a lead as the visitors came back and scored another nice try, again converted to lead 21-15.
McNaughton's line kicking was excellent all afternoon and from a penalty he put them deep in the visitor's 22, they won the lineout and Adam Howe went close to forcing his way over before the ball went wide to the left, the forwards poured in front of the clubhouse and it was Lee Chapman who got the touchdown right in the corner. The conversion slid wide and the home side were one point in arrears. Penrith retook the lead after securing lineout ball in the attacking 22, Fearon brought Matty Boustead into the line off the blindside wing, he broke the first line of defence but was then half held and McNaughton was on hand to score his second try which would break the club's try scoring record.
This time the conversion was good and pulled the lead out to six points but again the visitors came back. The home defence dropped a ball on their own line and conceded a 5m scrum, they managed to defend that but were penalised and the penalty was kicked to touch for an attacking lineout. The Wilmslow pack executed a training ground catch and drive from the lineout and again the visitors led.
George Graham had entered the fray by this stage and his know-how set up the next try as he made the half break to put the visitors' defence on the back foot, Brad Taylor joined the line from fullback and got round the outside, he wasn't going to make the corner so floated the ball back inside and Pamphilon picked up the pieces and went over for a deserved try,
With ten minutes to go Penrith finally managed to take control, the pack got on top in the set scrum which helped and they scored a sixth try when Pamphilon set up Boustead with a pop pass off his shoulder, he hit the gap and went over for a well taken try, the lead was out to two scores and from there on in, the home side looked in charge but it had taken some time, effort and six tries.
Penrith will travel to Birkenhead Park for their final away league game which will be a fair challenge before facing unbeaten Stockport at Winters Park to complete their league programme.