Penrith’s woes continued as they again had to patch a side together, this time for a home fixture against fifth placed Blaydon as they went under 45-15.
There were three players making their first appearance for the senior side this season, one was a debutant, and that brought the total number of players used by the side to 48 as the league campaign just reaches the halfway stage.
Blaydon looked a well-organised and quick side and they opened the scoring in the first ten minutes running back a Nick Dudson clearance kick.
Dudson chased his kick and went down with shoulder injury sustained in the tackle.
The home side shut down the initial run but when the ball came back into midfield there was a gap where Dudson would have been defending and the visitors took full advantage scything through that gap to score.
Penrith did hit back making ground after a quickly taken penalty by Ashton Hook got them on the front foot.
The visitors infringed and Fraser Nicolson hit the penalty to pull three points back.
The home side were having trouble with the powerful driven mauls Blaydon were launching from line-outs and they scored a second try after one such drive pulled in the defence and the ball was then spun wide to take advantage of the overlap.
The game went into the second quarter and it looked as if it might be a very long afternoon for the Cumbrians but they did gradually get themselves into the game.
They were getting into some promising positions as the visitors were conceding penalties and Nicolson’s line-kicking was getting his forwards into the 22.
Their line-out was functioning well enough and they were getting possession deep in the 22 but they lost the ball at the breakdown a number of times and couldn’t maintain the pressure on the visitor’s defence.
The home set scrum was performing well and they had already driven the Blaydon pack off their own ball on one occasion when they were able to mount a concerted attack on the try line with a series of penalties where they opted for a scrum.
They almost succeeded in scoring a push over try but the scrum was reset.
After the second re-set the ball was moved wide where Sonny Askins almost made the line.
When the ball came back Flyn Longrigg came off the blindside wing to hit the gap and score right on the stroke of half time.
The Cumbrians turned around only 14-8 in arrears and looked to have a real chance as they had much the better of the period just prior to half time as the visitors infringed numerous times.
They had got on the wrong side of the referee and lost all their momentum.
The second half though was a completely different affair. Blaydon started at 100 miles an hour, really got their tails up and for 20 minutes completely dominated the contest. They scored four unanswered tries and put the game to bed.
Penrith did come back at them in the closing stages and Harlan Corrie scored a well taken try in the corner after some intelligent play and a nice set up by Joe Spencely.
Corrie was helping his old club out sitting on the bench and had come on early and put himself about with some impressive hits and hard running.
Penrith are having a tough time of it with numerous players out with long-term injuries and can only battle away as best they can and hope for some returning senior players.
The players who turned out on Saturday could not be faulted for endeavour or effort but they are just being blooded in very difficult circumstances.
