Well earned victory

Penrith (a) 28 Sept 2014

After a confidence boosting season opening win DMP were in good spirits for the long trek west to Penrith. And those high spirits were well founded with DMP going ahead as Lyle Godfrey burst away to score from a maul in midfield after some strong work by the DMP second row of Matthew White and Stephen Henry. John Grey completed the simple conversion to make it 0-7 after just 2 minutes.

As Penrith started to get into the game, the DMP front row of George Todd, Oliver Chew and Tom Dixon were starting to become dominant in the scrum with the pressure on Penrith front row forcing them to stand up or bring down the scrum. The referee quickly determined that the situation was dangerous and ordered uncontested scrums, somewhat nullifying DMPs superiority in this area of the game.

On 10 minutes, after further good work in midfield by the DMP pack, the ball was fed to James Garlick who went on a weaving run from 30 metres out, beating a number of Penrith defenders before scoring near the posts. John Grey again adding a simple conversion.

The pattern of the game continued with most of the play being in the Penrith half and resolute defence from both sides keeping thinks tight. Sol Kench did breach the Penrith try line but was unluckily ruled to have been unable to ground the ball. Once agin though it was DMP who produced something special - this time a great catch and lay back of the ball by Matthew Smith leading to John Grey having space for a dash down the left wing to score in the corner.

Just as both teams appeared to be getting ready for the half time break, the ball again found John Grey in space and he showed great pace again to score his second try of the game, adding the conversion himself to make it 0-26 as the half time whistle blew.

Half time score 0 - 26

The second half proved to be a very different game to the first, with Penrith seeing much more of the ball and DMP having to show how strong they are in defence as well as attack. Ezra Laundy-Blair was the first to show, throwing himself on a loose ball inside the DMP 22 as Penrith threatened, George Todd covered back following a long kick ahead by Penrith and then Jacob Mehegan showed good pace and strength to mop up another kick ahead and set DMP off on the attack.

DMP were unable to keep the ball for long and soon more defence was needed, Matthys Mooij knocking the ball out of Penrith hands with a strong tackle and Jack Kennedy knocking Penrith forwards back in midfield. However Penrith were getting closer to the score they craved with only a last-ditch tackle behind the try line from Will Todd thwarting Penrith as the ball wasn't grounded.

Penrith pressure did tell in the end, going over for a consolation try down the right wing on 42 minutes. As the clock ticked down, both sides looked to threaten but defences stayed on top as demonstrated by Rufus Fox manfully inspecting the ankles of the Penrith centre in a courageous tackle.

Final score 7 - 26

Tries: Lyle Godfrey, James Garlick, John Grey (2)
Conversions: John Grey (3)

Man of the match: Rufus Fox