Penrith has been a difficult place for Stockport to win and until the last 5 minutes it looked like the home side would keep it that way. However some well organised pressure by the forwards resulted in a try that put the visitors in the lead for an important win, which increased the lead at the top of the table. Stockport found it hard to get into any sort of a rhythm and the defence was not up to the standard expected this season, with some poor tackling allowing Penrith to run out of their own half and run in a try from a scrum in the Stockport 22 late in the first half. It is a reflection of the character of this team that they were able to win despite not being in their best form.
Stockport had all the early possession but in their own half and Penrith scored a penalty. On 10 minutes a kick was charged down on halfway and Jordan Pearson picked up and ran in to score under the posts for Matt Bebbington to kick the conversion. With the referee not letting anything go Penrith scored two more penalties before Stockport started putting together some good phases. Second row Paul Ralph ran well and Stockport won a penalty, which Bebbington put into touch 20 meters out and the catch and drive resulted in a try for Tom Cruse for a 12 -9 lead. Stockport then started to dominate play but inaccuracies and good Penrith defence prevented any more scores in this half. James Drew had a 60 metre run down the line and a try looked likely but his pass did not go to hand and there was no score. It was well into injury time when Penrith ran the ball from deep in their half and beat all the attempted tackles to set up a scrum on the Stockport 22, the No. 8 picked up and again the tackles were missed as he ran in to score, the conversion put the home side up 12-16 at half time.
Penrith started the second half strongly and as a Stockport attack broke down on halfway the home wing hacked on and looked like he was going to win the race to go over the line but full back George Cook just got to ball to prevent the score. But Penrith kept up the pressure and a penalty in front of the posts put them 7 points ahead. Bebbington got a penalty to pull it back to 15-19 before Jamie Anthony was sin binned for not releasing the tackled player. There was a spell of mixed fortunes with errors and penalties preventing any rhythm developing and the Penrith defence proved resolute as the Stockport forwards put pressure on their line. Eventually a good Stockport attack allowed the forwards to attack the line again and on 75 minutes Skipper Dave Marwick twisted over to score, Bebbington’s conversion made it 22-19. Despite real pressure in the last few minutes, which looked as if an unlikely bonus point might be achieved, Penrith robbed the ball from the back of a scrum and cleared as the final whistle was blown.
With Bradford Bingley losing again the lead is increased to 18 points and next week’s home game against B&B should determine the outcome of the season.