Penrith played their penultimate league game at home on Saturday against fifth placed Stockport.
The Cumbrians had beaten them at home on the first Saturday of the season in what has turned out to be their only away win. Since then, Stockport won 14 of their 21 games and looked to be firm favourites for this one.
Stockport certainly started the game at pace and looked as if they meant business, they scored early on after an overthrown home lineout in their own 22 gifted the visitors possession which they took full advantage of.
Penrith did come back with a try of their own after George Graham got them to the the line with a break from a lineout on the 22 and Joe Kirkup made a half break and fed the ball back inside cleverly for Ant Davies to dive over, this looked to be just a hiccup for the visitors as their fleetfooted centre then stepped three tacklers to score an excellent individual try, they led 14-5 and more scores looked on the way.
Captain Graham was again responsible for keeping his side in the game, there was a penalty at a breakdown 30m out from the Stockport line and the referee looked as if he may have signalled it to the visitors, that was not the case and Graham was on top of the situation and had the ball tapped and was away under the posts before anyone else reacted.
The game now looked more even but the Cumbrians had Fraser Nicolson to thank for keeping them in it as he just managed to hang on to one of the visitors’ backs who had taken an interception and looked clean away.
The home side then got on a bit of a roll, they scored again after Archie Rattray broke from the back of a scrum on halfway and got to the 22, the ball came to Matty Boustead whose powerful run got him to the line.
Kirkup was on hand with another clever scoring pass close to the line which Jack Tunnicliffe benefitted from to touchdown in the corner.
Home tails were up and again Graham was the quickest thinker when the home side were awarded a penalty 15m out, he was away and under the posts before the away defence reacted.
Graham was involved in Penrith’s fifth try, a half break and a pop pass to Rob Coward in support saw him go deep into the visitors’ 22, The home pack recycled the ball and with the away defence on the back foot Boustead picked his gap to score.
Penrith led 31-14 just before half time and had to withstand a bit of a Stockport onslaught, it was imperative they did not let the visitors back into the game, they successfully defended two attacking 5m lineouts and when Boustead tackled the winger into touch to end the half they breathed a sigh of relief as they held on to their lead going into the break.
The home side started the second half on the front foot. Adam Howe was held up over the line early on and then Coward set them up for their sixth try.
He scuttled back to gather a pass that had gone astray, turned and a gap appeared in front of him which he accelerated through, Boustead and Nicolson were in support and they fed the ball back inside to Graham who ran in under the posts for his hattrick try.
The game then rather drifted, the home side lost their concentration and started to ship a few penalties which gave Stockport some field position and a bit of hope.
They did get back at the home side and scored two unconverted tries to narrow the deficit to 14 points, they were then throwing caution to the wind chasing the game when they spilt the ball in midfield. Howe was quick to snap it up and released Rattray who showed his pace from 30 yards out to score under the posts.
Penrith lost possession following the restart and the away side took advantage to score then the same thing happened at the other end.
The visitors tried to run the restart ball out of their own 22, the ball ran loose, Coward was on to it in a flash and scored under the posts to send the home score past the 50 mark.
They then scored their final try when the away side spilt the ball in the home 22, Howe found Nicolson who set Coward away who ran from 22 to 22, they retained possession and Harley Johnson got the ball to Howe out of contact, he almost made the line but when stopped just short had Nicolson in support to score the ninth try.
Penrith were happy with their decisive win against a good Stockport side, they now have their double header against Kendal, their final league game then the cup final.
