The winter weather eased late in the week and Penrith's game at Winters Park went ahead in perfect conditions on Saturday and they profited with a four try bonus point win which moved them up to fourth in the table. The teams immediately below them in the league may have games in hand but Penrith have the points in the bag.
The win was not quite as regulation as the scoreline suggests and the home side actually trailed at half time. Broughton Park had the first opportunity to open the scoring but a long range penalty landed well short. A couple of minutes later after some aerial ping pong the last visiting defender was caught with the ball and was guilty of hanging on and Mike Fearon had the easiest of chances head on to the posts on the 22 and Penrith were three points to the good.
Before there were ten minutes on the clock the home side were ten points up, Ed Swale was alive to the threat when a kick was dinked over the advancing line of home tacklers, he took the ball on the full and scampered down the touchline, he then put the ball into space behind the defenders and Sam Dudson chased hard, showed his pace, and got to the ball first and hacked it on from just inside the 22 into the deadball area. He continued his chase and got to the ball to complete the touch down just before it rolled out of play. Fearon converted and was only to miss one shot at goal all afternoon.
Whatever the visitors could do or not do they could retain possession for long periods and the home side spent plenty of time defending, most of the visitors play was through their forwards and up the jumper stuff close to the breakdown and it was a surprise when their opening score came via their three quarters.
Their centre was nicely set up and made a stunning clean break down the centre of the field and the ball was transferred to the winger who went over in the corner, the conversion was missed but the visitors were back in the game and their tails were up. Just before the break Penrith were guilty of giving easy penalties away which the coaching staff before the game had pleaded with them to avoid. Two penalties conceded in quick succession got the visitors from offering no threat on half way to throwing in to a lineout 5m from the home line. This was meat and drink to their forwards and they took the lineout and rumbled over, this time the conversion was good and they had their noses in front at 12-10 and this was the half time score.
Penrith had stuttered in the first half and although they were far from perfect in the second period they did play better open running rugby. They were not long in regaining the lead and it came from nowhere. A move had broken down when a misplaced pass rolled along the floor to Kris Bratton, everyone watched as he set off at pace and cleared the immediate would be tacklers, he was left with only the stand off to beat and he stepped him with little trouble and dived in under the posts.
There was little in it but the game was largely being played deep in the visitors half. An adept Swale chip into the visitors 22 saw them throwing in to a lineout on their own line. The combative Mike Stephens limped off to be replaced by the equally combative Kevin Walker, Walker's first action was to charge down the clearance kick following the lineout in the deadball area to earn his side a 5m scrum.
The visitors managed to steal the ball at the scrum but they fumbled the ball behind the line for a second scrum. This saw the introduction of Sanele Mtetbu at prop and his physical presence and fresh legs made the difference. The visitor's pack were eased backwards and wheeled and as the referee awarded the home side a penalty Tama Toomata broke from No8 and dived over for the score.
Penrith now lead 24-12 but Broughton Park rallied and made a real go of it, they should have scored with a two man overlap but their No8 was going to brush young Dudson aside but he couldn't and the opportunity was lost. The Cumbrians weathered the visitor's fightback before scoring the bonus point try.
Penrith sealed the game with five minutes to go, a Fearon half break caused a bit of mayhem, Bratton almost got over in the corner but the ball ran loose. Toomata tidied things up before the ball was spread left and Dudson then spotted a flat defence, chipped the ball to the corner and it sat up nicely for the speeding Steven Cherry who got the try his excellent second half performance deserved.
The Penrith coaching staff were delighted with the outcome but not as pleased with the performance, with a week off they have plenty of time to prepare for their trip to Widnes who they have just leap frogged in the league table.