There was a huge sigh of relief at Winters Park at half-past-four on Saturday afternoon as Penrith Rugby Club secured their first league win at the third attempt.

They have been beset with injury and availability problems, and probably faced two of the best sides in the league before their 48-26 win over Manchester.

It was also the official opening of the new artificial grass pitch and the free-running Penrith backs took to it like a duck to water, scoring seven tries on their first run out.

The home performance was far from error free and the availability problems are still there as head coach David Preston played the full 80 minutes.

Penrith had the game under control from the start and, after scoring four tries in the first half-hour, they then rather lost their way either side of half-time before then killing the game off reasonably easily.

They had scored in the second minute after Ross Jackson made the half break, enabling Josh Dowson to get in behind the Manchester defence. The ball was spun right from the breakdown where Ian McDowell tidied the ball up for Jay Rossi to be put in cleanly around the outside to score wide out. Matt Allinson converted.

Allinson made inroads to lay the foundations for the second score, bulldozing up the middle before the ball was then shifted right where Dowson shrugged off a tackler and released winger Brad Taylor. He threw a convincing dummy before cutting back inside to score.

Preston gave his squad an object lesson in securing possession at the restart and set the ball up for George Graham to hoist the kick. Penrith chased well to regain possession and, when the ball came to Rossi, he jinked his way to the line to score from almost halfway.

Manchester weren’t the most mobile side but they were big and strong and caught out Penrith at a quick tap penalty to score too easily.

Allinson kicked a Penrith penalty and, on the half-hour, they scored the bonus-point try with a sweeping move in the backs which ended with Taylor on the overlap scoring in the corner.

The visitors then had the better of the remaining 10 minutes of the half and Penrith had Taylor to thank with a try-saving tackle in the corner for keeping the score at 29-7 at the break.

Manchester started the second half on the front foot and, after Penrith knocked on in their own 22, the visitors put together enough good play to score a deserved try.

For a period Penrith struggled to keep hold of the ball and were giving unnecessary penalties away that were keeping the opposition in the game. They then scored a fifth try to settle the nerves.

Craig Price took a quick tap penalty and caught Manchester on the back foot. The ball was then spun along the line to the try-line where the ruck was formed. The ball was recycled and George Graham spotted his opportunity and picked his way to the line.

They scored another when Graham moved the ball away from the breakdown and McDowell and then full-back Jamie McNaughton moved it rapidly left to replacement winger Olly May who sped in at the corner.

The Cumbrians then gifted the visitors another try when they again dropped the ball in their own 22, this time it was snapped up by the opposition who gratefully ran in under the posts unopposed.

After gifting Manchester with another try, Penrith added their final try from a sweeping move which ended with Taylor completing his hat-trick.

That left the visitors to score the final try to earn a bonus point try.

For the second time, it was from a quickly-taken penalty from short range and they probably merited the bonus point.