The 48-17 scoreline might suggest an excellent Penrith performance and an easy win over Durham City but that was far from the case.
For more than half the Regional 1 North game visitors Durham City were in the contest and were making life difficult for the home side and they weren’t doing themselves any great favours either.
Penrith couldn’t have started any better as they scored in the first minute after receiving and securing the kick off in their own 22.
They ran the ball out with Nick Dudson making the half break, getting the ball away to Aaran Pamphilon who broke out. Fraser Nicolson got into the opposition half before being hauled down and there was a ruck on the visitors 22 just in from touch.
George Graham spotted the lack of cover on the blind side as did Brad Taylor and took the pass and ran in unopposed.
The home side scored a second try before the visitors had laid a hand on the ball.
It wasn’t directly from the re-start but they did run it out of their own 22 again and two penalties later they were camped on the Durham line.
Graham found Dudson who hit a gap from close range and Penrith were 14 points to the good in the first ten minutes.
Penrith then over-threw at a line-out to give the ball away and a couple of phases later the Durham centre had blasted through some poor tackling to score.
For the next 20 minutes Penrith rather lost their way. Their play lacked accuracy, passes went astray and balls were dropped to gift a lot of possession for a game workman-like Durham side who made the best of it and competed well.
Throughout the game the home forwards had the better of the set scrums and just before the break they set up a third Penrith try when they shunted the visitors off their own ball in their 22.
Graham fed Nicolson on the blind side who had a bit to do to score but his nimble footwork got him in at the corner.
The visitors bounced straight back and kicked a penalty to the corner, won the lineout, and scored from close range to pull the score back to 21-10.
The home side then won a penalty in the final play of the first half on the visitor’s 10 metre line and tossed the ball to Nicolson.
He certainly had his kicking boots on having converted all three tries, one off either touchline and he then slotted the penalty with ease to put his side two scores ahead.
The home side started the second half slowly and didn’t manage to string any decent bits of play together for ten minutes then they got the ball wide on the left and Nicolson danced down the touchline before finding Taylor who set up Jay Rossi to spin out of the last tackle and score.
That seemed to settle them and they improved from there on in.
The next score came from a penalty on the Durham five metre line where they opted for the scrum.
Penrith’s dominant eight slowly eased themselves to the line and James Thompson at No8 made a tidy job of gathering the ball and claiming the try.
The visitors continued to give it their best and were camped on the home line and Penrith had a defender yellow carded.
As they continued to press Taylor lifted the siege by intercepting and sprinting from his own line to weave his way through before the cover eventually caught up with him.
Second row Chris Jackson had done well to get up in support and took his pass and then fed it to Thompson who knocked off a couple of defenders to score.
Durham to their credit carried on battling away and scored a deserved third try before good work by Thompson and Graham set Ryan Johnson up to crash over under the posts.
