After a five-week break the Penrith Panthers returned to action with a convincing 54-10 win at Blaydon against their Red Kites development team.
The home side had actually started the stronger, dominating possession for the first ten minutes.
During this spell they managed to break through the middle to score the opening try of the game.
When Penrith finally gained some decent possession several forward carries drew-in the home defence and they capitalised by moving the ball wide.
It paid-off when Josie Scrimgour drew the last defender to put Breanne Kelso in for the try.
Penrith were quick to score again when a bad clearance kick by Blaydon landed into Caitlin Wood’s hands and she used her pace on the outside to score.
Minutes later Penrith were back on the score sheet. Scrimgour gathered up a loose pass and used her pace to run round three defenders to score with Helena Scullion adding the conversion.
The game evened out then with both sides sharing the possession, before the Penrith forwards started to carry the ball again and created a maul which gained them some good ground.
Amy Wright peeled-off the back of the maul and gave the ball to Julia Addison who drew in the defender in front of her before putting Polly Bowman in to score. Scullion added the conversion.
Bowman was quick to score again when Blaydon gave a penalty away 40 metres out, She took it quick and broke through the scrambled defence to touchdown.
The first half finished with Blaydon winning a penalty on the Penrith five metre line. This time they took it quick and went over to score their second try to trail 29-10 at the break.
The second half started evenly with both sides sharing the possession. However when Bowman again took a penalty quickly, she offloaded it in the tackle to Addison who once again drew in the defender which created the space for Scrimgour to run in and score.
The next try started deep in Penrith’s half where Addison ripped the ball out of the tackle and passed it wide to debutante Robyn Huntington who had 70 metres between her and the try line.
She burst through two tackles and used her pace to outrun the final defenders to score under the posts.
Penrith continued to keep scoring and the next two tries were from well-worked set piece moves.
For the first the ball was sent straight from the scrum to the backs where they ran the dummy scissors pattern and Scullion fed Scrimgour who had a clear run in to score.
The second try came when Caron Davidson picked up from the back of the scrum and carried hard. She off-loaded to Scullion who linked with Addison to draw the last defender and put Scrimgour in for her fourth of the afternoon.
The final score came from another penalty and this time Scrimgour became provider. She took the penalty quickly and fed the ball to Scullion who went over for the try.
Forward of the match was Polly Bowman, especially for her quick-thinking at penalties which created multiple try-scoring opportunities and her high work rate around the pitch.
Back of the match was a joint award between Helena Scullion, who had a really good game at both scrum half and fly half distributing the ball with ease to her back line, and Beth Hook who despite being new to scrum half put in a very good display, solid in defence with her passing first class throughout.
