It was tough on the West lads who had battled so hard in defence for long periods of the game. Absorbing pressure and tackling superbly they probably, for that alone, deserved something out of the game. Losing at the last play is a tough pill to swallow (just ask Rovers) but even worse is the fact it comes in the first away league match of the season, with West so keen to break the habit of losing tamely on their travels. There can be some consolation in outscoring their opponents two tries to one and the coaches can’t fail to be happy with the defensive effort. But there is only so much pressure you can take and West must find a way to clear their lines when teams make mistakes in attacking areas.

Injuries are also a worry, with almost every player down at some point or another, certainly keeping Gez busy. He’ll have to work hard during the week too, with 5 matches to come in October, starting with Sandal next week, some of those players will be needed. Especially now that so early in the season we have a must-win game on our hands against the Wakefield outfit.

There was a switch to the bench before kick off with Davy Tighe stepping in to cover Colin Cheslin who went down with food poisoning yesterday. He was called in to action inside 10 minutes with Martin Todd limping off with a hamstring problem after Conrad Jansen had given Penrith a two minute lead with a penalty.

West, as an attacking force, looked as blunt as normal away from Brinkburn early on but the defence was resolute and bar a tough penalty shot from Wallis neither team threatened the scorers for much of the first half. Penrith showed good handling in patches but dropped balls cost them a few times coupled with some crunching tackles from the West forwards.

With almost 35 minutes up the West scrum went rocketing backwards but somehow the ball came back to ‘Tinker’ Williamson who started a break down to short side from inside his own half. Passing inside to Boatman it looked like a try could be on, only for the flanker to be brought down just short. The ball was cynically killed by two Penrith forwards and from the penalty under the posts Tim Sawyer caught the Cumbrians napping and dove over from short range leaving a simple conversion for Tighe. Whilst a little out of the blue, it was just the confidence boost West needed and it seemed to bring even more strength in defence, once again slamming the door on phase after phase of Penrith play. The hard work was clearly taking its toll though. Phil Wallis and Allan Milne were both struggling with leg injuries, as was Andy Palmer who had to give way to Anth Carr shortly before the half-tmie whistle.

Neither team were getting much penetration but West had to fancy their chances at the half, leading 7-3. Penrith’s half time team talk consisted of screams of “We can’t lose to this bunch of rabble.” That probably was all West needed to hear to get them going for the second half too! However Jansen started the half just as he had the first with an early penalty before Tighe went wide with a tough effort a few minutes later leaving the gap at just a single point and the game tentatively balanced.

The hosts were putting West under all sorts of pressure , asking big questions of the defence, particularly through replacement centre Thwaies whose bullocking runs were proving difficult to stop. Still, West held out but didn’t help themselves with several poor clearances when the opportunities arose to get kicks away. Finally after 57 minutes Jansen added another penalty to give his side their first lead and it was now looking even tougher for West who had hardly ventured into their opponents half since the interval. Stu Bennett came on to replace Garse but injured himself with his first tackle and the substitution had to be reversed. Penrith pushed hard again, and when Carr was sent to the sin-bin with 15 minutes to go it looked like a familiar away game story all over again. However the forwards finally mounted an attack with 4 minutes left on the clock and Tighe made a typical break, leaving his opposite number for dead and racing in for a try, converting it himself. It was no less than his side deserved having tackled so well for so long. At 14-9 only a try would do for Penrith and they set about getting it with, once again, some desperate defence keeping them out. When Carlo Robinson went down with cramp, and the West bench looking like a hospital ward, the previously injured Palmer had to come back on to prop at the final few scrums.

Deep into injury time Penrith seemed to blow their last chance but with the injuries making West’s scrum creek they managed to turn a scrum and launch one final attacking move. Having been held out twice moving the ball to the right, it was a case of third time lucky and lock Kevin Walker went over for the try. That tied the scores and with a tough conversion to come it looked like one point a piece would be a fair result. But Jansen had other ideas. Slotting his fourth kick of the afternoon, the celebrations could begin, the West players left tired, demoralised and cursing their luck.



Penrith: White, Atkinson, Young, Jansen, Heth’ton, Wilson, Slack, Lund, Taylor, Wilson, R Dawson, Walker, Bowman, Shepherd, Murray.
Subs: Thwaies, T Dawson, Stainton

Try: Walker
Con: Jansen
Pens: Jansen 3

West: Thomas, Weegram, Hodgson, Milne, Todd (Tighe), Wallis, Williamson, Palmer (Carr), Sawyer, Robinson (Palmer), Rudd (Bennett), Davies, Boatman, Tones, Miller.

Tries: Sawyer, Tighe
Cons: Tighe 2

Referee: Peter Forsyth (Northumberland) [Pretty even game with only 14-10 penalties in Penrith’s favour. Amount of injury time was probably justified as much as I’d like to say otherwise!]