After a disappointing performance away from home the week before, Penrith Rugby Club showed what a different prospect they are at Winters Park.

They comprehensively beat a decent Burnage side 48-12 after blitzing them with four tries early in the game and then picked them off as they tried to chase the game in the second half.

George Graham set his side up early on when the visitors overthrew at their line-out in the Penrith half, taking the ball as it cleared the Burnage jumper, he took play almost to the visitors’ line.

Graham nearly forced his way over after a maul was driven to the line and Matt Allinson did get over but the pass was ruled forward.

Penrith finally broke the visitor’s defence following another Dan Richardson take at the line-out, deep in the 22. 

Jon Fell nearly made the line before Graham finally forced his way over from the base of a ruck on the try-line.

Penrith scored a second almost immediately after Graham took a quick-tap penalty. 

As he was closed down, he chipped ahead into the path of Jamie McNaughton, who took the ball easily as it sat up nicely for him and went in at the corner.

Penrith then scored from the restart after Will Morgan took the ball, rolled away from the chasers and made ground himself.

Graham, as always, was awake to the situation and was on his shoulder, and he found Jay Rossi who showed a clean pair of heels to the cover to make the line.

That was three tries in as many minutes and another followed quickly after Allinson made the break to put Rossi away, and he set-up McNaughton for his second try and a 24-point lead.

A shell shocked-Burnage then enjoyed some possession which eventually produced a try from a penalty kicked to the corner, leading to a catch and driven maul to the line.

The Cumbrians scored a fifth try as the first half drew to a close.

Again, a penalty was kicked to the corner and Ian McDowell found Richardson in the middle of the Penrith line-out. This time, instead of setting up the usual maul, he surprised the defenders and set off himself and made the line for a well-taken try.

Penrith turned round 29-5 to the good and were soon on the scoresheet again. They won a scrum against the head and, when the ball squirted out of a subsequent ruck, Mike Raine was there to take it at pace. 

He cleared the first line of tacklers, then released McNaughton who appeared on his shoulder. He lit the afterburners, swerved in and then arced out to score in the left-hand corner to claim his hat-trick.

Burnage then came back strongly and showed they could play a bit as well, stringing the phases together and were a tad unfortunate to be caught on the hop.

A loose pass was thrown in the home 22 and Swale was on it in a flash and made ground to halfway before releasing McNaughton who initially looked as if he would run the try in but was closed down. Fell was in support and he found Swale who dived in for the try.

On the left wing, Fell was the next to benefit from Burnage’s over ambition and picked up a stray pass, he was clean away and when closed down, set replacement Josh Dowson away and no-one was catching him.

The visitors did have the final word and ran the ball at pace from their own 22, chipped ahead and won the race to the line.