Penrith came away from Percy Park with a bonus point 31-15 win in Regional 2 North.
It was especially satisfying as a fraught start to the game had suggested they might get exactly nothing.
The home side had a big well drilled pack and they dominated possession completely in the first 15 minutes as Penrith struggled to get into the game.
They made an inauspicious start allowing the kick off to bounce into touch. They then made a mess of the line-out to gift the home side possession which allowed Sam Wilson, on debut, to introduce himself to his new teammates with a bone juddering tackle that caused the ball to be spilt and give his side a scrum.
They managed to make a mess of that and in the sixth minute they conceded a try following a penalty to the corner and a catch and drive executed to perfection by the big home forwards.
The Cumbrians were struggling to win any ball as they were being driven off their set scrum ball.
An extremely tall jumper at the front of the line-out made life extremely difficult in the wet, breezy conditions, hence they played the vast majority of the first quarter without the ball.
They had to rely on their defence to keep the score down to the one try.
Then, little by little, they clawed their way into the game and as it went into the second quarter they began to get parity as the home forwards struggled with the speed of the game.
Penrith then spent long periods in the home 22 but were held at bay by a stubborn and well organised Park defence.
They went close on a number of occasions but couldn’t quite make the line and were held up the one occasion they did cross it.
It was the final play of the first half when the home rear guard eventually cracked.
George Graham took a quick tap penalty and made ground against a home defence on the back foot. He set up Jay Rossi who powered towards the line despite the attention of two tacklers and did well to get within a couple of yards where Graham picked the ball and dived over under the posts. Fraser Nicolson chipped over the conversion and the visitors led 7-5 at the break.
Penrith then looked the better side in the second half after nearly making a dream start when Rossi charged down a clearance kick but the ball just beat him to the dead ball line.
The visitor’s forwards now had the upper hand and their patience proved to be a match winner as they turned the screw on the opposing eight and let the backs do the damage.
Midway through the second period Jamie McNaughton produced a piece of superb individual play.
He took a clearance kick on the home 10 metre line and weaved his way through the whole home pack before leaving the final two defenders in his wake to score next to the posts.
The home side hit back with a well struck penalty but with quarter of an hour to go Penrith made sure of the victory with a third try.
The forwards did the donkey work softening up the defence which allowed Arran Pamphilon to make the break that opened up the home defence.
He played the ball wide to Brad Taylor who drew the last man and fed the pass back inside to Nicolson and he outpaced any cover.
They then came up with the bonus point try with the forwards again providing the platform.
Nick Dudson’s inside pass to McNaughton, off the blind side wing, saw him split the home back line wide open.
He then drew the last man and Taylor took the try scoring pass.
With a couple of minutes to go the home pack did manage the consolation try their efforts deserved from a penalty deep in the visitors’ 22 but it still left time for Penrith to complete the scoring with a penalty from the boot of McNaughton.
