Both sides were missing a number of last season's first teamers but can take lots of positives from a game split into quarters to give as many players as possible a competitive run-out.
There were lots of pluses for West including a tremendous performance from a slimmer Jack Angus, a returning Jay Corbett who has added intelligent offloading to his physical game and similarly Jordan Baggs who also made lots of ground with ball in hand..
Penrith will be playing in the new Regional 2 North league, which we aspire to join next season, while they have taken the bold step of entering their second XV in the Counties 1 Cumbria league, which is the Level 7 equivalent of our own Counties 1 Durham and Northumberland. This is the first season the RFU has allowed second teams to enter the league structure and, judging by the performances in our first two warm-up games, entering the Stags into the league structure in the not too distant future may be a possibility.
The tries began early with the Penrith fly half skipping his way through the middle to open the scoring rather too easily. West came back with a well-timed pass from Zac Southern sending Matt Siddle over to level the scores, before Penrith's slick centres took advantage of that reluctant tackling to regain the lead.
The home pack was bigger and heavier in all four quarters of the game. It was that dominance which saw Jay Corbett making ground and offloading to Sam Heron to score his first of the season.
Jay then got on the score sheet himself following a scrum with the ever-reliable Chris Akins setting him up. 21-12 to West at the end of the first quarter.
Wholesale change for the home pack didn’t alter the pattern with Alex Johnson also looking hungry for work on his return from the far side of town. Sam Heron put a great kick into the scoreboard corner and it was Alex who scored from the line-out.
Max Tennant had the pleasure of playing alongside brother Jake, albeit in the accustomed position of outside centre. The elder brother seized on a loose ball inside his own half and after chasing down his kick he looked like he might go all the way. However, Max was stopped short with referee Revis Phillips ruling he’d been the victim of a high tackle. This time the penalty kick to the corner didn’t bear fruit
Penrith cleared the danger and once again their backs looked stylish creating space to cross following a line-out. They narrowed the score even further five minutes later by creating an overlap on the left to make it 26-22 to West at the end of the half.
More wholesale changes as the teams turned round, and it was the visitors who were much more comfortable going ahead through their right winger. Again first up tackling an issue, before their inside centre ran a great line to go in under the posts to establish a 34-26 lead.
That was increased to 15 points when the classy outside centre was picked out from a scrum - he was also untouched as he glided through a couple of tackles.
Not to be outdone, Jake Tennant then produced a similar sharp finish from the left wing to keep his side in the game as we entered the final quarter, and with the likes of Jake Linighan restored to the pack.
But it was Jay Corbett who again stepped up to the mark. He took the ball outside his own 22 to set up three tacklers, who were all left sprawling, before offloading to Jordan Painter. He made ground up the right wing to send Max Tennant in to reduce the margin to just three points.
The pressure was all coming for West and it was Linighan who regained the lead with a powerful finish close to the posts, followed in similar style by Alex Barker who dived over on the last play.
Plenty to work on defensively before the first league games against Darlington and BBOB on September 3rd., but lots of reasons for optimism specially in terms of the number of players who are putting themselves in the frame for selection.