With a reasonable covering of snow early in the morning it had looked unlikely this game would be on. But when bright sunshine thawed things out by the 10.45 pitch inspection the Brinkburn pitches were declared playable. Conditions far from suited West’s style of rugby of late and even one of the best draining pitches in the town was hardly an ideal playing surface.

The outcome of the game was largely down to an error-strewn West being unable to convert 30 minutes of sustained second half pressure into points. Penrith did not venture out of their own half during that entire period but their defence held strong and denied West time after time. The rest of the game was dominated by the referee’s whistle with nearly 30 penalties and countless scrums, resulting in few minutes of actual ball in play.

West only had themselves to blame though as the defence was pretty strong throughout and sufficient territory and possession were won to get a result from the game but the points just wouldn’t come. Penrith’s rush up defence caused problems for the West midfield all afternoon and they couldn’t get the ball in the hands of danger-men Lambert and Weegram often enough and seemed bereft of a plan B.

Penrith opened the scoring after just 4 minutes when West were harshly penalised for not rolling away when it looked like the attacker held on to the ball on the floor. Nevertheless marksman Conraad Jansen made no mistake to give his side a 3-0 lead.

The visitors continued to press and added to their lead with a try on 18 minutes. Moving the ball wide they broke the West defence to leave a two on one which winger Jansen made no mistake with, racing in and converting himself. Things almost got worse for an off-colour West as a loose kick looked like giving Penrith another simple run in. But some great defensive work from Davy Tighe and Carl Miller halted the break and a penalty enabled the hosts to clear.

West finally got moving with a good run from Weegram and Moss slotted a penalty on the half hour mark from 25 metres. Jonny Boatman created the stand-off another chance from similar range 7 minutes later with an excellent tackle on James Stainton but unfortunately it drifted wide and would prove to be a crucial miss. Stainton, Penrith’s powerhouse centre, had been involved in everything but was lucky to get away with a nasty stamp on Darren Thomas well away from the ball early on.

At the break a 10-3 defecit didn’t look beyond West but they needed to cut out the errors and improve ball retention if they were to get back in the game.

The second half did little to improve an already dour game and if any of the large crowd at Brinkburn were first time rugby watchers they probably won’t be back in the near future!
West knocked on the door for 30 minutes but just couldn’t score. Gone was the clinical finishing to be replaced with dropped passes and lack of ideas. Had some of the penalty decisions been in more kickable range that might have been a route back for West and as is so often said an ace goal-kicker like Penrith’s Jansen is a valuable asset which is a must in any ambitious side.

The one controversial incident came when Andrew Davies touched down over the line after peeling off a maul only to be called back for the Penrith linesman sighting a foot in touch. It looked a tight call from a distance and eyes closer to the incident certainly seemed less than impressed with the club ‘official.’

Still it was not given and when Penrith finally cleared into the West half they set about running out the remaining 10 minutes in opposition territory. One half break in the last minute from Lambert gave West a glimmer of hope but when the referee spotted a knock on, Penrith could clear onto Catcote Road and erupt in celebration.

There is no doubt West will need to improve for next week’s trip across town to Rovers but with local derbies the form book can be thrown out of the window. The Friarage side haven’t had a game for two weeks so will be fresh and it promises to be an intriguing battle.

West: Thomas (Wallis), Lambert, Edwards, Hodgson, Weegram, Moss, Tighe, Carr, Sawyer, Robinson, Rudd, Davies, D Boatman, J Boatman, Miller

Pen: Moss

Penrith: White, Jansen, Young, Stainton, Hetherington, S Wilson, Slack, Lund, Taylor, R Wilson, Dawson, Shepherd, Murray, Stevens, Raine
Reps: Thwaites, Robinson, Swale

Try: Jansen
Con: Jansen
Pen: Jansen


Referee: Ray Sutherland [Durham Society]