Fourth from bottom played fourth from top and the score line would suggest a pretty easy win for the home side against Eccles who are scrapping against relegation. In the end that was probably true but certainly not in the first half hour.
Eccles appeared to want to get the home side off to a flying start, they knocked the ball on in the first play of the game in front of their own posts and Penrith spent the entire first 10 minutes in the visitor's 22. They threw into two 5m lineouts and had the put in to a 5m scrum and lost them all, chances went begging, Jamie McNaughton went closest but he was a yard short.
When Eccles finally broke out of their 22 they almost immediately had a penalty chance that went over and shortly after took a well taken try with a chip into the deadball area their winger won the race to. Penrith were eight points in arrears and floundering, passes were going astray and wrong options were being taken but after the half hour the game was stood on its head.
The ten minutes before half time belonged to Penrith's influential back row man Tama Toomata and he won them the game, he broke from No8 and made ground and then McNaughton made inroads up the left, the ball came back right and again Toomata made yards up the middle before the ball went wide to teenage winger Steven Cherry, the pass wasn't the best but he picked it up on the bounce and went outside his opposite number and round to the posts to give Mike Fearon a simpler conversion attempt and the home side were only one point adrift.
Good tackling in midfield saw the visitors penalised for hanging on to the ball and Toomata was sharpest to react. He tapped and went, drew in the cover down the left and timed the pass to perfection to Hadfield on the outside who just had to keep ahead of the cover to score. Toomata was to the fore just three minutes later when the ball squirted out of an Eccles scrum and into open play, he again was the first one to react and this time broke from wing forward to snap up the ball, make ground to the 22 and then find Ed Swale with an inch perfect pass and he again had just to outrun the cover to score.
From being eight up Eccles now trailed 19-8 but they continued to try and run the ball and were rewarded with a penalty. Penrith were a little fortunate to have a healthy half time lead but they soon added to it after the break and put the game out of sight.
The home side's leading try scorer speedster Darren Lee had seen very little of the ball in the first half but Eccles found him with a poor clearance kick which he took nicely as it came over his shoulder, he then opened up down the wing, turned on the afterburners and left the opposition for dead to score in the corner.
The Cumbrians' tails were now up and they played their best rugby of the afternoon with a number of phases of play stretching the visitor's defensive line to the limit, Swale took full advantage and broke down the side of the breakdown, he then found his captain with a reverse pass and big Ryan Johnson romped in.
Penrith had to wait a while for their next score and it again came from winger Lee, good interplay enabled him to be put in space, this time by his own side, he still had a bit to do and simply burst through the last defender for his second try of the afternoon and 21st of the season.
Eccles never threw in the towel and scored a second try after being awarded a succession of penalties deep in the home 22, it was no less then they deserved as the final score did not accurately reflect their input to the game.
Penrith had used up their allowance of interchanges of players and when young prop Ryan Banks was yellow carded found themselves short of front row players and had to lose another player as the scrums went uncontested. They were down to 13 men but that proved no hardship when they won ball from the first uncontested scrum, it came to McNaughton at outside centre who took the man opposite on for pace on the outside and beat him, he was then half tap tackled but managed to keep his feet and dive in at the corner.
The home coaches after the game were not gushing about the performance but couldn't really argue with a seven try bonus point win. They did stress there could be no bit part performances if they are going to go to table topping Birkenhead Park next week and roll them over like they had in the home fixture.