Penrith Panthers Ladies played a pre-season friendly at Fleetwood and came home satisfied with the performance in a 45-26 victory.
It was the first game for each side ahead of the new season, and both were looking to dust off the cobwebs.
Polly Bowman was the star of the show as she scored five tries and was a constant menace to the Fleetwood opposition.
The Panthers got off to a flying start in the first couple of minutes when Bowman stole the ball off the opposition and broke through to score under the posts, Ghana Walker added the conversion.
The next half hour was pretty even but Fleetwood were next on the score sheet after being awarded a penalty 15 metres out. They tapped quickly and drove over to score a converted try to finish the first third of the game level at 7-7.
Penrith were quick to score again at the start of the second third. Helena Scullion kicked the ball downfield from her own half and Caitlin Wood gathered out wide before using her pace to score, adding the conversion herself!
Four minutes later Penrith also took a quick tap penalty by Bowman who offloaded to Scullion before she gave the ball back to her to score her second try with Wood converting.
The Panthers quickly added to their tally when a cross-kick from Scullion found Wood who made some good ground before being tackled. The ball was recycled and moved to debutant Sian Kirby in the centre who went over to score.
Bowman and Scullion combined together again for the next score. Number eight Bowman picked-up, fed Scullion before taking a return pass to complete her hat-trick. Wood
Fleetwood then got hold of the ball and with a few strong forward carries they forced their way over to score their second of the day. Soon afterwards they broke through again to score and the second 30 minutes finished with the Panthers ahead 33-19.
The next two scores were almost identicalas Bowman used her strength and pace to break through the defence twice to score her fourth and fifth tries under the posts. Walker converted the second.
The game then evened off with both teams sharing the possession. Fleetwood finished the scoring for the day when they moved the ball wide their centre broke through to score a converted try.
Forward off the match was Polly Bowman, as well as her scoring prowess she was a nuisance all day at the breakdown winning turnovers and slowing down Fleetwood’s ball.
Back of the match was Helena Scullion. In defence she never missed a tackle and in attack she had a complete game distributing passes off both hands and kicking the ball into space to relieve pressure and create two of the tries.
