For the second North One East game in succession, Penrith went behind with only minutes left on the clock to then come back and steal the game in the dying seconds.

In neither game have they played particularly well, both at Dinnington before Christmas and on the resumption at Durham City, where they edged home again 22-18.

They did get off to a good start after being awarded a penalty in the first five minutes.

Rather than kick for goal, they backed their forwards and kicked to the corner for a line-out.

It proved to be the correct decision as they found Liam Tunstall at the tail and set-up the driven maul, which was wheeled to the right and made the line with Arran Sullivan diving over. Mike Fearon added the conversion.

As Penrith often do, they then spent long periods without the ball, defending and giving penalties away at regular intervals to give the opposition good field position and plenty of ball.

However they did defend pretty well and, although the home side didn't really threaten the Penrith line, they did get a string of penalty attempts.

The home kicker was striking the ball well and hit two out of the first three attempts to pull his side to within one point of the Cumbrians.

On the half hour, the visitors did get a bit of possession and a penalty shot after a series of forward drives was stopped illegally, Fearon struck the penalty nicely to pull the lead out to four points.

A lot of the talk on the day had been of the new interpretation of the high tackle laws, "head is red!"

Well, the ref got a chance to put it into practise as Will Morgan was brought down with a nasty head high straight arm tackle and he didn't hesitate, producing a straight red.

With the home side down to 14 men, Penrith took advantage from a scrum 30 metres out.

Mike Raine broke blind down the right, fed the ball to Ed Swale who angled a grubber kick in behind the winger, where Jamie McNaughton was in hot pursuit.

The ball sat up nicely for him and he took it at pace to step inside the covering full-back to go in for a well-worked try, which gave Penrith a 15-9 lead at the break.

A drop goal soon after the restart got Durham back within three points and Penrith just couldn't get a grip of the game and play it at a pace that suited them.

It was turgid stuff and not very pleasing to the eye but it suited the home side and they drew level from a penalty.

Into the last five minutes and Durham were awarded a penalty, which was kicked to put them ahead for the first time in the game.

But there was an eventful end to the game as the home side received a second red card after Ben Littleton got an elbow in the face while attempting the tackle.

The penalty was kicked to the corner for an attacking line-out but the throw in was not straight and that looked to be that.

The 13 men of Durham were hanging on grimly but were then penalised for being offside, again the penalty was kicked to the corner and this time the throw to the line-out was good.

It was well taken by Dan Richardson in the middle of the line and the driven maul was set up. A number of the backs lent their weight to the maul and they got over the line.

The referee saw the ball grounded and awarded the try and it was Swale who came up in possession, his first try from a forward drive!

Fearon hit the conversion and there was just time to restart the game before the final whistle.

In North One West, St. Benedict’s were denied a win at Warrington as the hosts landed a penalty with the last action of the game to sneak it 28-26.

That almost represented a stirring fight-back by the west Cumbrians as they had been 22-0 behind at half-time and seemingly out of it.

Three tries, a penalty and a conversion put Warrington firmly in control before Saints started to assume increasing control with the forwards in stirring form.

With several second team players in the squad, and a three-hour journey to overcome, it might not have been a surprise it took the Cumbrians so long to find their feet.

From a Saints rolling maul, captain Stuart Wilson forced his way over to give the visitors a glimmer of hope as Kyle Hiddleston added the conversion.

When Wilson went in again soon afterwards and Hiddleston converted, the fight-back was really gaining momentum.

Warrington could not cope with the Saints forwards and their speedy backs, who had looked dangerous in the first half, were starved of any decent ball.

Saints’ third try came after good work by young winger Toby Findlay, who raced down the line before feeding inside to Karl Drake, supporting on the inside.

He went in under the posts and Hiddleston’s conversion made it 22-21.

Warrington added a penalty but Saints came roaring back and scored their fourth try through Craig Fisher who used his bulk to charge over the line.

Hiddleston missed the kick but Saints were in the lead for the first time.

There was heartbreak in the dying seconds when Warrington landed a penalty to snatch the win.