Moorlanders Win At Penrith

Saturday 21st October 2023

Regional 1 Northwest

Penrith 21

Leek 27

Leek made the long journey North on the M6 in their furthest away fixture of the season to fellow promoted Penrith. Despite the torrential rain of storm Babet, and motorway delays making it a 4 hour long trip the game kicked off at 15:10 on Penrith’s 4G pitch. Coaches Booth and Appleyard shuffled their pack, Lee Williams returned to the front row joined by brothers Bobby and Captain Eddie Cheadle. Tom Hayes and Luke Hardern started in the second row. Billy Kidd returned to the flank, with George Hunt and Joe Gorman was the No.8. Joe Byrne was partnered by Will Midwinter at halfback. Josh Nadin and Jack Newton-Taylor were the centres with Sam Brereton, Kin Critchlow and Noah Reaney making up the back three and completing a youthful backline with an average age of 20.

Leek kicked off with the strong wind behind them and immediately earned a scrum from a Penrith knock on. Good phases of play led to a penalty on the 22mtr just to the right of the posts on 2 minutes. Midwinter kicked Leek 0-3 up. On 10mins after sustained pressure Newton-Taylor broke through a tackle then released George Hunt who was tackled just shy of the try line but offloaded in the process back to man of the match Newton-Taylor to score by the posts. Midwinter kicking the conversion to take Leek to a deserved 0-10 lead. On 15 minutes Leek won a penalty 48 metres out, Midwinter opted for a shot at goal but pushed it to the right, the Penrith fullback claiming the ball and running it back to their 10-metre line. Fortunately for Leek, Lee Williams was on hand to make one of his trademark turnovers. This time Midwinter made no mistake with the conversion, and the score moved to 0-13. Penrith were not a side to bow out and from the point on they grew into the game. On 22 minutes they crashed over with a powerful maul on the right-hand side, with the fly half converting to bring the score back to 7-13. Leek would have the final say of the half on 37 minutes, with their own maul proving effective, Luke Hardern dotting down on the left-hand side. Midwinter adding the extras for the half to end 7-20 to the visitors.

In the second half, Penrith had the wind behind them turning the territorial advantage around, which the Penrith backs used wisely. The fullback hitting a huge 50-22 just 2 minutes into the half. Again, Penrith’s strong maul crashed over the try line closing the score down to 14-20. All the momentum was with the Cumbrian side now who dominated possession and territory until 62 minutes when George Hunt was sent to the sin bin for collapsing a maul 5mtrs out. The hosts opted to scrum from the penalty and inevitably scored a few phases later. Their 10 slotted the wide conversion and the hosts had flipped the game on its head, 21-20. Leek had to roll up their sleeves and dig deep at this point and it was Newton-Taylor again who dragged Leek back infront. The newly converted outside centre received the ball well inside his own half, skipping inside his opposing man, standing the fullback up and beating him for pace to score a magnificent try right in the left corner. Midwinter slotted the touchline conversion, and the score was now 21-27 to the Staffordshire side, with little over 10 minutes to play. The momentum see-sawed for the remainder of the game, Billy Kidd doing a superb job defending at the lineout in the final play, to earn Leek a hard-fought victory on the road.

The 4-point win keeps Leek at 7th place in the table level with Stockport and 5 points behind Kendal in 6th place. Perhaps more notably Leek are 9 points clear of the drop zone as they fight to cement their place at level 5. The next fixture is at home to Macclesfield on 4th November with a 14:15 kick off.

No rugby this coming weekend, but it is the annual bonfire and firework display at Altrad Park on Friday 27/10/23. Gates open 6PM Bonfire Lit 7:30pm.