PENRITH 2S 35 WIGTON 31

With no colts game at the weekend Penrith 2s took the opportunity to blood a number of youngsters in a highly entertaining game against Wigton first team under the lights on Friday evening in front a good crowd. The first team have been struggling with injuries and this situation has doubly affected the seconds and neither side has had an easy start to the season but here was the chance of a first home win.
The game was an open affair from the start, the visitors had a lot of possession and ran the ball at every opportunity. There were a good number of penalties awarded throughout the game, often for high tackles, and Wigton ran the ball at almost every one. This left the young home side with a lot of defending to do but they stuck to their task well but did concede two converted tries in the opening half an hour.
They did offer some attacking potential, most of it through 17 year old scrum half Ashton Hook and just before half time they struck back after gaining good field position in the visitor's 22. A quickly taken penalty led to several forward drives for the line, Will Morgan almost got there and Hook was on hand to snipe through the gap created for the try. Ed Smith hit the conversion over from wide out and Penrith trailed 14-7 at the break.
Their efforts looked in vain as Wigton scored immediately after the break but they dug in and struck back after a penalty kicked to touch in the visitor's 22. They secured the ball and after a number of drives for the line Morgan got over the line. The hosts then got themselves within two points when Adam Pate used all his experience and guile and picked off an interception and a clear run in to the line.
The visitors came back straight from the restart, two attempted home clearances were charged down and a soft try conceded. Hook then got his side back within striking distance when he ran a penalty on the 22 and floated out a well judged long pass to Ricky Dadley who found himself on the wing and he powered in at the corner. Pate then repeated his trick and took another interception and again was clean away and scored for the home side to lead for the first time 29-26. They then stretched their lead with a Carl Ryder penalty and the visitors then produced a grandstand finish and scored a try to leave them trailing by just one point. Breath was held as the conversion was struck to win the game but it came back off the post.
There was time for a final play and Wigton again threw caution to the wind but stern tackling kept them in their own half and they conceded a penalty on their 22 and Ryder's was the last kick of the match as he knocked over a second penalty.