Penrith replayed their fixture at Wirral lost to the winter weather in early January.
Originally a free Saturday, there were odd players missing with prearranged weekend activities.
It’s also a time of year when injuries tend to mount and the management team also had to deal with defections of three players to another club.
Despite that they managed to pull together a decent side who performed well above expectations at one of the better sides in the league.
They did not start that well and conceded a string of penalties that allowed Wirral to camp in their 22 and score an early converted try.
This game was end to end all afternoon and the Cumbrians were soon on the attack, a quickly taken penalty by George Graham got them on the front foot, good work by Luke Coulston and Adam Howe got them further up the field.
A Matty Boustead break got them deep in the 22 and then big Joe Kirkup did what he is so good at and forced his way over in heavy traffic taking three defenders over with him.
The conversion was missed and Penrith trailed by two but were soon ahead.
Another Boustead break after good work by the forwards saw play well into the home 22, Graham was in support and Boustead got the ball to him out of the tackle and he floated it out to Richy Dadley who ran in unopposed.
It was then the home side’s turn to dominate, they scored a converted try and then backed it up with a penalty under the posts. They led by seven and pulled the lead out further with another converted try to 14.
The visitors struck back, it was that sort of game. Graham took another quick tap penalty on half way and immediately made inroads and he was through the first line of defence. The cover looked to have him but the attempted tackle just propelled him forward and he beat the last defender for a 50m try.
The lead was down to nine and with minutes to half time Penrith were well in the game. Things didn’t go well around the break, they conceded a soft try in the last play of the first half and then again immediately after the restart and were looking at a 21 point deficit.
Some Penrith sides in previous seasons might have gone on to lose by a cricket score but this Penrith side are made of sterner stuff. They dug in and toughed it out and came back at a good home side, they didn’t conceded another try and got themselves back into contention.
Fraser Nicolson got them into the home 22 to get their fourth try after fielding a kick in his own 22 and then launching a 50/22 into the opposition’s 22 for an attacking lineout.
They drove the maul from the lineout, hard running from Jimmy Hall then Howe and Coulston got them close to the line where the defence infringed.
Jack Tunnicliffe took the tap penalty straight away and barrelled into the defenders on the line and then Kirkup repeated his trick and spun through the would be tacklers on the line and his side had a bonus point.
The Cumbrians scored a fifth try from a scrum 30m out, Coulston broke from No8 and created the gap that Isaac Murray shot through. Graham was in support and looped the ball back to Coulston who had a clear run in.
Penrith were now seven points in arrears and were in losing bonus point country. The home side, mindful of this, took a penalty opportunity to lead by 10 and the game went into it’s final stages.
The visitors’ efforts never flagged and were on the attack when they won a penalty on the 22 head on to the posts, a successful kick would restore their second bonus point. Nick Dudson, who had had an excellent game, held his nerve and the kick went over.
There was enough time time to restart the game and the visitors again threw everything at it to try and force the draw but they were penalised and the home team were relieved to tap the ball and bang it into touch to end the game.
It had been a tremendous effort especially when you consider they lost the influential James Thompson after quarter of an hour, had to rejig both forwards and backs.
Coach David Preston quite rightly told his men he was proud of them and they travelled back up the M6 with two bonus points.
