On Sunday the Penrith Panthers braved the snowstorm to head to down to Fleetwood RUFC for a very cold game of rugby! The game started with snow falling, but lucky for us it didn’t stay long and even the sun came out!
The game started with Fleetwood dominating the possession, every time Penrith got the ball handling errors gave it straight back to Fleetwood. They had a simple but effective game plan, using their size advantage and carrying off 9 relentlessly, after 15 mins of hammering the Panthers defence they finally broke through to score.
For the next 20 minutes the game then went back and forth, the Panthers started to grow into the game gaining some possession, as they did this, they started to use their pace out wide to gain ground and cause Fleetwood problems. The Panthers managed to score two identical tries in 6 minutes, both tries came from penalties and involved the same players. Helena Scullion took the penalties quick and sent the ball down the back line for Josie Scrimgour to finish both moves off. Helena adding a conversion onto the second one.
Fleetwood responded straight away with more hard carries to go over to score their second try, making the score 10-12 in the Panthers favour with 15 minutes left. The game stayed tight with possession going back and forth. With 5 minutes left of the game Fleetwood went over to score the final points of the game. With the score finishing 15-12 the game really could have gone anyway.
Forward of the match was awarded to Jenny Brown normally a centre played at blindside flanker due to injuries. A position she then made her own with a huge defensive effort, leading the tackling count with fantastic technique.
Back of the match was awarded to Josie Scrimgour, as well as scoring a brace of tries, every time she got the ball, she looked dangerous side-stepping players and making ground each time.