Penrith are fast becoming the draw specialists in Regional 1 North West, they have had two drawn games in their last three matches and a total of three so far this season in a sport that rarely sees draws.
That said, they have now gone four games unbeaten, a four try bonus point in each of those games gives them 16 points from a possible 20 and has propelled them into the top half of the table and enabled them to stay there.
This game did not look much of a prospect for a draw as the home side started extremely strongly and had the Cumbrians pegged back deep in their 22 for long periods, there was some desperate last ditch defending which blunted most of their efforts but the home forwards opened the scoring without crossing the Penrith line.
They were moving a driven maul from a lineout inch by inch inexorably towards the line when the visitors were deemed responsible for its collapse and a penalty try was awarded.
The visitors also had to play the next 10 minutes with 14 men as a yellow card was awarded for the collapsed maul but they held out with a seven man pack and managed to weather the storm and go into the second quarter of the games only one score down seeing very little of the ball.
They then came into the game, got their hands on the ball and were able to put the home side under a bit of pressure.
They got their opening score following an Isaac Murray penalty to the corner, Sam Wilson took the ball at the tail of the lineout and Penrith drove for the line.
After a number of one up drives for the line the ball came to Mike Fearon at stand off who managed to make a half break between two defenders and slip the ball out of contact to James Thompson, he was left with a defender to beat but powered past him for an unconverted try.
Blackburn continued to have some decent spells of possession where they moved the ball well but the visitors defence was up to the task.
They did conceded a kickable penalty which the home side seeing the game was going to be close took advantage of and extended their lead to five points, then just before half time extended their lead again.
They had a 5m scrum and won steady ball, the defenders were too busy watching the possible runners off the scrum, it then wheeled and crabbed towards the line and there was no need for runners and a push over try was conceded.
Penrith trailed 15-5 at the break but they now had the breeze in their favour now and the slight slope to play down and they couldn’t have got off to a better start.
The home side secured the kick off, cleared it upfield and Murray gathered the ball and ran it back. He fed Wilson who broke the first tackle and carried 25m then returned to Murray who had a clear run in, he converted his own try and Penrith trailed by three points.
Blackburn struck back almost immediately and were on the visitors’ line, Penrith were in possession and got the clearance kick away into touch but the ball was thrown straight back into play, the defence was at sixes and sevens and the home side ran the ball back with purpose and scored their only try from open play which was converted to restore their 10 point lead.
Within minutes the visitors reduced the deficit, from a scrum on the 10m line strong running from first Thompson, then George Graham, Jack Tunnicliffe and Adam Howe took play deep into the home 22. With the defenders on their own line Liam McAvoy picked a perfect line and went over close to the breakdown untouched.
Penrith now trailed by five but the longer the game went on the stronger they looked, the home side were just looking to hang on to what they had and rather than run the ball from deep as they had earlier in the game were happy to kick for touch.
The visitors continued to press and got their reward with quarter of an hour to go.
Thompson won the ball at the line out and the home side were penalised as Penrith drove the maul, Wilson took a quick tap and Howe drove the ball in.
The ball came out and James Bent was in the line off the blind side wing and threw a long pass to Thomas Connell on the left wing and although he didn’t have much space and looked to be caught 5m out managed to keep his feet and was strong enough to go over in the corner.
That levelled the scores at 22 apiece and the conversion off the touchline was just wide so they remained tied.
In the final 15 minutes Penrith looked the stronger but both sides had chances that neither couldn’t finish, the final play was a Penrith long range penalty and Murray’s effort set off on target but although it had the legs drifted just wide.
A draw was probably a fair result as either side could have snatched it late on, the visitors did fair slightly better as they had scored four tries to Blackburn’s three so in league points came out on top three points to two.
Penrith now have a tough rearranged away fixture against fourth placed Wirral before playing third in the table Anselmians at home.
