Penrith's second team took on Keswick's 2s on Friday evening and hoped to emulate the first team's efforts the week before, end a traumatic season on a bit of a high with a decent win. The game took place on a soggy pitch with a good crowd who were well entertained.
The game started with plenty of attacking play from both teams, the home side were running the ball in hard but the visitor's defence was up to the challenge and they had opportunities of their own. They nearly opened the scoring opting to kick at goal from a penalty but with no kicking tee available to drop kicked effort went wide.
Penrith did manage to score first after good work by their forwards, Tom Kirk who had come on as a replacement at scrum half used all his experience to find the gap after his pack had battered the home line. Stand off Gavin Mooney used the age old tactic of creating a tee with a lump of turf and the conversion was successful form a seven point lead.
There was nothing in it as the first half progressed and Keswick's efforts were rewarded with a try but it went unconverted, so the visitors to hold a slender two point lead at the break and they had the advantage of the slope in the second half.
Again there was little to chose between the two sides as they went toe to toe in the second half but the home side were to produce the best piece of rugby that evening to score from their own half, they won a lineout in front of the grandstand and then moved the ball slickly along their backs to put their left winger in space and with pace to burn he rounded the cover to score.
This time the conversion was good and the home side had a five point lead.
As the half progressed Keswick won a kickable penalty and opted to kick at goal as the three points would give them a two score advantage, the attempt sailed over and Penrith had it all to do as the clock ticked down. Their task was not made any easier as the end they were attacking was cutting up badly making any sort of running play near to impossible.
They stuck to their task though and played through their forwards who had had the upper hand most of the evening, their effort and resilience paid off when Josh King went over from close range for a team try, the conversion out of the clart went wide but it made little difference as Penrith were only now three points adrift.
It was 80 minutes since the half started but two lengthy injuries meant there was time to go for a winning score, the visitor's forwards again got up a head of steam and after some really nice interplay among the pack Jack Tunnicliffe swallow dived over the line for the winning score. The attempted conversion out of the clart again went wide but again it didn't matter as the final whistle went.
It was the end to a well contested game and a nice end to the season for Penrith's second string.