Penrith Panthers and Keswick Falcons produced an epic ladies match under the Winters Park lights.
It finished 19-17 to the home side, with all the points being scored in the first-half and the victory could have gone either way.
A bumper crowd enjoyed a physical local derby between two really well-matched sides. Keswick started the game with the possession and the territory and five minutes in they opened the scoring with a try from Katie Pepper which was converted by Vicky Mitchell.
The Panthers responded quickly, winning the ball back from a turn-over in the ruck by Katie Jackson.
From this the Panthers started to move the ball with the forwards off-loading well, and the backs looked to move it from one side of the pitch to the other.
A miss pass from Helena Scullion gave the ball to Josie Scrimgour who stepped back inside to glide through to score. Scullion added the conversion to level the scores.
Once again Keswick came back, running straight and hard, and after keeping the ball for several phases Lucy King managed to power her way over for an unconverted try.
The next 15 minutes belonged to the Panthers as they were camped in Keswick’s half and had nearly all the possession.
When they were awarded a penalty on the 22 metre line Polly Bowman took it quickly and fed it to Jackson who hit the defence hard and drove them back with the help of her pack.
She was grounded five metres out and the ball was moved to Scullion then to Meg Phillips-Craig who took the tackle and offloaded to Becca Grierson to score in the corner for 12-12.
Four minute later Penrith scored again as the ball was moved to the centre where Scrimgour ran a great line breaking clean through the defence.
Using her pace she out-ran the chasing defence to score under the posts. Scullion added the conversion for a seven point lead.
Keswick were soon to reply when they won a penalty and kicked it to the corner. After winning the line-out the ball was moved one player out Siobhan Lamb who ran a good line to dive over and score but crucially the conversion was missed.
The second half actually proved scoreless but that didn’t do justice to what was on display.
It was filled with everything needed to make the game a nail biter!
Both sides shared possession and both sides gave everything they had in both attack and defence. Right to the final whistle the game could have gone either way, so the rematch in the new year is already being eagerly awaited.
Penrith’s forward of the match was Katie Jackson in attack as she ran hard and straight making the Panthers a lot of yards! Back of the match was Helena Scullion who seemed to be everywhere on the pitch as she was involved in attack or defence.
