Penrith Pumas were on the road again for the second round of the Wheelchair Rugby 5’s Championship when they again travelled down to Stoke Mandeville – writes Ron Richardson.
Following their promising start to their newly promoted status the first-round games saw the Penrith team settle in well and return to Cumbria sitting in second position. It was envisaged that the second round of matches could be a crucial water shed for the Pumas – lose their matches and they could be looking at dropping back down to the league they had fought hard to rise up from. The incentive was there and coach Byron Durkin-White emphasised this with the squad before the matches commenced.
Playing in the same ‘round-robin’ format Pumas faced Solent Sharks and true to his word from the tip off Byron Durkin-White gathered the ball and sped over for the first score within seconds of the start. The next scores went on a ‘end to end’ basis with the Pumas just maintaining a slender advantage. As the half progressed a lucky break for the Sharks came about when a loose ball ricocheted from a Pumas chair straight to a Solent player who was unmarked, and they glided over to make the score 4-4. Good defending by Jeremy Norman initiated an intricate move which concluded in Richard Metcalfe pushing the score to 5-4 for the Pumas.
Josh Tudge then added a further Puma score from close range with Byron Durkin-White adding a further score. Again the match went into a ‘tit for tat’ scoring basis, but for a short period before half time the Penrith team pushed the scoring up to give them a two point lead thanks to some superb defensive play by Puma’s Ness. The second half saw the scoring increase for both sides, much as the first half, with some good team breaks for the Pumas and some fine defensive play from Matthew Smedley.
With the game looking like it could conclude in a draw, the pace of the match and the intense heat, saw Pumas make a string of unforced errors which resulted in opportunist scores for the Sharks, who managed to carve out a 21-18 victory at the final hooter.
In their next match Pumas faced the team from Stoke Mandeville. It was the Pumas who took an early lead, stretching out to 9-3, which included two tries from the youngest Puma team member Matthew Smedley. The best move of the first half came about when some fine interplay between Tudge, Williams and Ness resulted in Tudge forcing his way through the scattered Maulers defence to make it 10-3. Further scores, including another from Matthew Smedley, saw the Pumas take a 15-3 lead into the break. The second half went very much the same was as the first with Smedley scoring a further two tries as Pumas built on their first half lead with little come back from a tiring Maulers side. Good defence from Smedley, Ness and Metcalfe kept the opposition out and some exciting rapid breaks from the Pumas saw them progress to a final victorious score of 26-11. With Smedley once again crossing for the final score of the match.
The third game against Coventry Stampede was the closest fought contest of the day with both teams going flat out for the chance to gain second place in the league. End to end scoring throughout both halves saw the score go nip and tuck with some good team scores for the Pumas with Ness grabbing her ‘hat-trick’ and Matthew Smedley again leading from the front with another brace of scores. Final Score Pumas 22 – Coventry Stampede 20.
The concluding match of the day saw Pumas take on the Solent Sharks in the play off. This match again was a hard-fought close contest, but the strength and fitness of the Sharks showed through as the Pumas trailed at half time by 9 tries to 15. A rejuvenated Pumas side took to the court in the second half and pulled things back to a respectable final score of 24-19 to the Sharks. Highlight of the game for the Pumas was Penrith based Matthew Smedley scoring 8 tries, bringing his total for the day to 14 tries.
Pumas now sit in a consolidated second place in the League, which means that as they go into the final round of matches their position in the Championship is secured for next season.