Penrith had a very long afternoon when they hosted Sandal and went under 59-18.
If they thought they were in for an easy ride as their opposition lay 10th in the league with only two wins to their name they were sadly mistaken.
They were under the cosh from the off and the visitors didn’t let up for the full 80 minutes.
The home side’s cause was not helped when they lost seasoned second row forward Ant Davies after only seven minutes as they were already missing a number of their more experienced players and captain George Graham in particular.
They were fortunate not to concede in the opening minutes as one of the visitors’ forwards strode through the breakdown deep into the home 22 but a scrambling defence kept them out.
Sandal went close again and it looked as if it was Penrith who’d spent the previous two hours on the bus.
The visitors then had a shot at goal that went narrowly wide and were held up over the line but finally got the score their superiority deserved on 15 minutes when they drove a maul over the line from a five metre line-out.
They weren’t long in adding a second try, running back a poor clearance kick and looked threatening every time they were in possession.
The home side did have some of the play but some poor decisions and average play meant the ball was soon back with the visitors.
They added a third try, running a ball from a scrum in the Penrith 22 and scored a fourth on the stroke of half time when Penrith lost their line-out in their 22 and gifted the ball to the opposition pack on their own line.
Penrith trailed 24-0 at the break and it could have been more, and if they were going to get anything out of the game they needed a positive start to the second half – and they got it.
The re-start from Isaac Murray ran loose and Jack Tunnicliffe got a toe end to it. He then managed to gather the ball as it bobbled into the 22.
Penrith then had a number of phases and went close to scoring but lost the ball before Scott Lancaster managed to tackle the defender behind his own try line and win a five metre scrum. Greg Wrathall broke from number eight and fed scrum half Ashton Hook.
He made a dart for the line and when held up lobbed the ball to Nick Dudson who then helped it on it’s way to Thomas Connell on the wing who stepped back inside the last defender to score.
Any chance of a come-back quickly evaporated as Sandal scored from the re-start and then minutes later, with the home side trying to press too hard, they conceded an interception try.
They were well adrift at this stage 36-7 but scored a second try when Hook got away in open play and set up Murray to score under the posts.
Again, any hopes of a dramatic comeback were dashed as the drop out was knocked on and Sandal scored from the ensuing scrum.
Penrith did get a third score when Matty Boustead fielded a Hook chip through to claim the try but they couldn’t manage a fourth for a bonus point.
Sandal were good value for their win and the important lesson is there are no easy games in this league and after their good start the Cumbrian side is going to have to knuckle down and grind out some results.
