Kendal Wasps 44 (12) v (0) 0 Manchester

Second vs Third, but it was difficult to gauge the strength of the Manchester team as a number of their games had been postponed.

Some new names in the Wasps squad, following the Development game at Vale of Lune a fortnight ago, and a tactical switch with Hayley Hodgson returning to the centre with Sarah Wilkinson, and Tamar Benson moving to fullback.

The referee was not happy with the state of the main pitch, after the game on Saturday and rain over the last few days, so the game had to be switched to the 3G, and despite a few heavy showers, there was still a good turn out to support the teams.

The Wasps played towards the river in the first half, and dominated the early play, but could find no way through a good Manchester defence.

The break through finally came after quarter of an hour. A good handling move saw the ball moved from left to right across the Wasps back line, with right wing Sophie Postlethwaite getting the touchdown. 5v0.

Manchester came back, and most of the next fifteen minutes was in the Wasps half. Whilst the Wasps defence never looked in too much danger, they were also unable to escape their half.

Then against the run of play Hayley Hodgson, who had been well marked up until then, found a gap, and once through went three quarters of the field to score under the posts with Tamar Benson adding the conversion. 12v0.

There was no further scoring before half time, so the Wasps turned with only a narrow lead.

It took just over a minute of the second half for the lead to be extended. From a scrum in the Manchester twenty-two, the Wasps No.8 picked up and power through to the line 17v0.

The message to the Wasps at half time appeared to be to move the ball faster, and there was some excellent handling, and offloading the ball in the tackle, which lead to the next try with Sarah Wilkinson making ground from deep in her own half. When stopped the move was taken on by Hayley Hodgson, and finally finished by left wing Emma Lifshitz. Tamar Benson added the conversion. 24v0.

A third try in the opening ten minutes of the half came from a powerful run from inside the Wasps half from one of the replacement forwards. The move was then taken on by Emma Lifshitz, and when stopped Sarah Wilkinson was there to get the score. 29v0

There was then a break in the quick fire scoring and Manchester had some possession of their own, only to be met with some crunching Wasps tackling, but kept recycling the ball well.

When the next try came it was from short range. The Wasps scrum had been on top, and when Manchester had a put in on their own line, the ball went loose, and having moved from the left wing to scrum half in place of Cath Sewell, livewire Emma Lifshitz was quick to react and take the ball for the score. 34v0.

The score saw Emma Lifshitz replaced by the returning Cath Sewell and she was to set up the next try.

Claire Geldard, who had started on the bench before coming on at half time, had been well marked, but this time was on hand to take a pass from Sewell when she broke through, and once she had the ball in her hands, there was no stopping her. 39v0.

The final try came with ten minutes to play and was a second for Hayley Hodgson. She broken through down the right wing, but was held and looked for a offload. Nothing was on, so instead she managed to twisted out of the tackle, and powered away for the try. 44v0

Hayley Hodgson was force off late in the game with a head injury.

A really good performance from the Wasps in attack and defence, with early in the second half some excellent handling from both backs and forwards, with the Manchester defensive line doing well to hold them. When Manchester had the ball they recycled well, but came up against a solid wall and occasionally some typical crunching Wasps tackling.

Possibly the most pleasing thing was the clear strength in depth of the team, with players coming off the bench and fitting in as just as well as those they had replaced

The win keeps the Wasps in second place nine points clear of Manchester, but trailing Sheffield who have two games in hand by 5 point.

The Wasps are next in action again at Mint Bridge on 7th January against Driffield, where they won 17v43 in their second game of the season. They are also now home the following week to Harrogate, who failed to fulfil the fixture earlier in the season

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