A 45-17 scoreline would suggest a regulation home win for Penrith in North One West.
It was third from top hosting third from bottom of the league who were without a win, but it wasn’t that simple.
Penrith did their best to make life difficult for themselves and Broughton Park hung on in there, never giving up what, at times, looked like a thankless task.
The weather conditions were far from ideal for good rugby and it took both sides a while to get used to the blustery wind, the wet and cooler conditions than of late.
After 10 minutes the Cumbrians opened their account and shortly after added a second unconverted try. They were both similar in nature coming from penalties being kicked to the corners for attacking line-outs.
The first was into the left-hand corner and the home forwards successfully secured the throw before setting-up the driving maul.
It made slow progress until Dan Richardson peeled off on the narrow side and forced his way over.
The second came from a kick to the right corner and Josh Dowson took the ball and again the maul inched forward. This time scrum-half Fraser Nicolson saw the gap, took the responsibility and darted over from short range.
The next 20 minutes saw the home side appear to do everything in their power to keep Broughton Park in the game.
They kicked badly; were guilty of spilling the ball too easily and would be lucky if they commanded 25 per cent possession during this period.
The game was played exclusively in the Penrith half and most of it in their 22 but to their credit they did defend very aggressively and the tackling was first rate to keep their line intact.
The visitors did eventually score an unconverted try which was no surprise given the area the game was being played in and the amount of ball they had.
On the stroke of half-time the home side conjured up a little bit of magic that had so far eluded them.
Ryan Johnson won over turn over in midfield, the ball came quickly to replacement centre Matty Boustead.
He made an electric break easily beating the first line of defence and bore down on the fullback before sending the supporting, Jamie McNaughton in under the posts for the first converted try of the game.
With a 17-5 interval lead the home side made rather easier work of the second period and ran in a further four tries.
McNaughton scored the first after some good work by teenage winger Tom Knowles and the awareness of Jay Rossi to set him up to wrong-foot the last defender and go in under the posts.
Steven Cherry was next on the scoresheet after the Penrith pack drove the visitors off their own scrum ball. Johnson made two storming runs in traffic up the middle of the field before the ball went wide and this time McNaughton turned provider to send in Cherry.
A mess at the base of a Penrith scrum in the middle of the pitch, allowing the ball to be hacked into the home 22 was the unlikely start of the next score.
The ball was gathered by Boustead in acres of space and in this broken field scenario he is devastating,
No-one looked as if they were going to lay a hand on him but deep into the visitor’s half he was finally caught up with. Rossi was on hand to finish off the move and run in under the posts.
McNaughton completed his hat trick for the final Penrith try after a quickly taken penalty by Nicolson on half-way. Some quick hands from the home backs and some nifty footwork from the Penrith full-back saw him run in under the posts.
The visitors had never given up and continued to battle away for the full 80 minutes. They had scored one try during the second half and they completed the game by adding a third with the final play of the game.
