Penrith v Hartlepool Sunday 7th 2021.

The Penrith Panthers Ladies travelled to fellow new club Hartlepool RFC on Sunday, this is the first season for both clubs and neither team had won a game before yesterday, so it was a great chance for both sides to gain that first W.
Penrith won the toss and decided to kick off, Hartlepool dropped the high ball Penrith chased the kick well gathered the ball and after a few forward drives Captain Caron Davidson crashed over to open the scoring. From there the game got scrappy with both sides trying to get some rhythm going. 20 minutes in Penrith got their second try, a turnover in midfield gave Helena Scullion the ball in space she moved it wide to Julia Addison who drew the last defender in to release Sophie Gilmour 20 metres out to go over and score. Hartlepool then started to keep possession their big forwards driving hard down the side of the ruck, eventually their number 8 drove over to open Hartlepool’s account.
Both sides have now found their feet, each side playing to different styles, Hartlepool with a forward oriented game plan and Penrith with more of a running style trying to get the ball wide into the outside channels. This gameplan seemed to work well for Penrith, the Panthers had a scrum in the centre and the ball went straight to the backs good quick hands by Julia and Jenny Brown put Emily Todd through a hole, she broke through the fullback’s tackle to score. Penrith kept the pressure on both the forwards and the backs combined to move the ball to midfield where Josie Scrimgour broke through two tackles to score her 6th try of the season, Helena adding the conversion. Hartlepool took the restart, Emily took the ball clean used great footwork to step two players and then fed Breanne Kelso the ball to score under the posts, Helena adding the conversion taking the score 29-5 at half time.
After the restart Penrith wasted no time in getting back onto the score sheet. The Panthers kept the ball build phases up with both the forwards and the backs contributing to a great 5 minutes of rugby, Becca Grierson got the ball on wing and used her pace to run round their final defender to score Penrith’s 6th try of the afternoon. Hartlepool kept to their game plan, Penrith losing a lineout on their own 22 this gave Hartlepool the chance to pick and go making yards every time eventually they drove over to score. 5 minutes later the Penrith backs used their pace again the ball went wide to the wing where Becca fed it back inside to Holly Veitch who went over to score her first of the afternoon.
With 16 minutes left the game stopped momentarily, the Ref had pulled his hamstring, so a replacement was needed. Cumbia Referees Society ref Craig Price who’s on the Panthers coaching team stepped up to take over, so the game could finish as neither side wanted it to end. Hartlepool came back strong again and scored another try upfront in the forwards. Penrith once again bounced back straight away with their forwards carrying hard pulling the oppositions defence in to create the space out wide, Holly took advantage of this and went over to score. Penrith finished the game on top and Julia finished the days scoring breaking through midfield side stepping two plays to score under the posts Breanne adding the conversion.
It was a great afternoon of rugby, Penrith’s defence held strong against the Hartlepool forwards who never stopped running at us. Penrith’s growth as a team is amazing to watch and on Sunday, they gave a complete team performance with the forwards working hard to create the space for the backs to exploit. There is still a lot to work on and improve but this game gives a great reward for the effort the players and coaching staff have put it. There were many impressive performances so picking the two player of the match awards wasn’t an easy task. Breanne Kelso deserves a special mention usually a centre she played out of position for the first half in the forwards before reverting to centre for the second half, in both positions she put in some strong tackles and made a lot of yards with some hard running in attack.
Forward of the match was awarded to Captain Caron Davidson who yet again led from the front. Her work rate is second to none, she runs hard in attack and never mind who ran at Caz, her defence never faulted continually making tackle after tackle. Back of match was Sarah Doyle, Sarah has played for several years and her experience at scrum half helped link the forwards and the backs together, in defence like Caron she tackled everyone that ran at her.
Team.
Bernie Willets, Sarah Halliwell, Jackie Thompson, Di Gibson, Amy Wright, Breanne Kelso, Helena Scullion, Caron Davidson (C), Sarah Doyle, Julia Addison (VC), Liz Brook, Sophie Gilmour, Jenny Brown, Emily Todd, Becca Grierson, Josie Scrimgour, Holly Veitch.