After a three week Christmas break the First XV returned to action with an away trip to Scarborough. After a good opening section to the season, Scarborough had lost their last four games before Christmas, due to a number of injuries, but several players were returning. Kendal had lost their last three games before Christmas, but could have won them all.
The big selection news was the return of Matty Houghton from a spell at Wharfdale, and whilst he had not played a lot of rugby recently, the timing was good with Ben Dixon away, and Alistair Thompson working in New Zealand again. Other changes from the team in the last game at Cleckheaton saw Chris Park come in at fullback for Jack Blakeney-Edwards who was away, whilst Dan Shorrock came in for Dini Noyo on the wing, and Logan Flett for Tom Moulton in the front row. Lewis Kincart got a start at scrum half, with Jordan Johnson moving to the bench.
Kendal got off to a flying start, and had the lead after just three minutes. With the referee signalling a penalty, Glen Weightman put the ball wide, and Matty Houghton made an immediate impact breaking the Scarborough defence to set up a three to one overlap, passing to Lewis Kincart for the try, which Glen Weightman converted. 0v7
It soon got even better. Steve Nelson broke the defence on the left and got the ball away to Lewis Kincart who had a good run up the left wing, before passing to Nick Carlton in support for the try.
Kendal continued to play well, but the Scarborough defence tighten up, and were up very quickly, turning the ball over on several occasions. Their powerful centres and back row were always looking to make ground,
Scarborough seemed to have the upper hand in the scrum, but the referee clearly decided due to illegal means, penalising them several times on Kendal put in, much to the disgust of their support.
After a quarter of an hour Scarborough opened their scoring. A long kick was put down the right touchline to the Kendal line, and taking no risk Nick Carlton put the ball dead to give Scarborough the scrum. From the scrum the ball was quickly moved into mid-field, where centre Henry Hocking, one of the players returning from injury, went through a gap to score, and then converted his own try. 7v12.
Scarborough were starting to get the upper hand and drew the scores level after twenty minutes with a drive from a lineout. 12v12.
Five minutes later Kendal were back in front. Nick Carlton broke the defence in mid-field and with no one in support put a kick ahead. Scarborough centre Billy Parker seemed to have the kick covered, outpacing Carlton to the ball but Carlton was rewarded for following up, as he charged down Parker’s attempted clearance kick, then benefitted from Scarborough’s very large in goal area to follow the ball and touch down, before it went dead. Glen Weightman could not add the conversion. 12v17
As the half came to an end Scarborough drew level again. Centre Billy Parker was stopped on the line, but managed to get the ball away to Henry Hocking for his second try. Crucially Glen Weightman, Lewis Kincart and Dan Shorrock, charging of the conversion, put Hocking off, and he missed.
The scoring was not finished as Glen Weightman’s restart kick was knocked on by a Scarborough forward, and the ball was picked up by a player in front of him, to be penalised for offside. This was the fourth penalty of this kind in the game, as both teams had done the same thing at lineout, whilst Kendal had earlier conceded one from a charged down kick. Glen Weightman made no mistake with the kick to give his team a slender half time lead, and three points that were to prove pivotal in the final result.
Scarborough had the better of the early exchanges in the second half, and their solid defence gave Kendal few chances to escape their half.
Kendal did have some chances, with a good break by Lewis Kincart and Dan Shorrock down the right wing, being ended by a high tackle, only for Kendal to lose the ball at the resulting lineout.
After a quarter of an hour Kendal made a triple substitution with Jordan Johnson, Jack Lashley and Joe Lashey coming on for Lewis Kincart, Logan Flett and Steve Nelson.
This did not have the effect the coaches had hoped for, as Scarborough disrupted the Kendal scrum and the ball was turned over, then from their own scrum Scarborough set up fullback Tom Harrison to go through for a try, which Henry Hocking converted 24v20.
There was a worry for Kendal when the game was stopped for an injury to Danny Barker. He hobbled off, but as he left the field it was clear the injury was not as bad as first feared, and he was later able to return. Lewis Kincart came on in his place, going to the wing, with Nick Carlton going into the centre.
With fifteen minutes to play, with Kendal in possession the referee stopped play, but it was Jack Lashley he called aside, and yellow carded, for blocking a Scarborough player.
Scarborough continued to attack, but could find no way through, and it was seven minutes into Lashley’s period on the sidelines before a scrum meant Dan Greenwood had to be sacrificed to allow Lorgan Flett to return in the front row.
Scarborough continued to dominate, but could not get the score to make the result safe.
As the game entered injury time, Glen Weightman put a long kick into the Scarborough twenty two but Scarborough seemed to have it well covered. The referee had however clearly spotted the Scarborough right wing either put in a late tackle, or obstruct a Kendal player, and gave him a lecture, but unlike Lashley there was no follow up card.
The kick was put to touch, the lineout won but Kendal could not make progress.
When a second penalty came it was run quickly, which initially seemed a mistake, but Glen Weightman used the confusion to find a gap in the previously watertight Scarborough defence to weave through to score, then added the conversion.
Despite being two minutes into injury time, there was still plenty of time to play, after a number of injury stoppages.
Rather than keep the ball tight, Kendal kept the ball moving, possibly realising their opponents had the upperhand in power in the forwards, and whilst it initially worked, taking play out of the Kendal half, it finally backfired as a penalty was conceded.
There was more drama as Jack Lashley thought a ball was out and came through to be penalised by the referee, and clearly spoke out, and seemed lucky to escape a second yellow card.
Kendal weathered the storm and when Scarborough conceded a penalty, Glen Weightman was able to put the ball dead to ended the game.
A good away win, against a very good side, despite them being under full strength, and a reward for keeping going when seeming to be second favourites for the game.
The value of the late try which took Kendal from a losing bonus point to full points, became clear with news that next weekend’s opponents Driffield had been held to a draw at home by Durham City which sees them move out of the bottom three, at the expense of Percy Park.
Is it a co-incidence that the teams at the bottom, are those with the greatest travel, although we seemed to be doing well on the road. Next week it is time to turn that away form into a home win against the team currently in second place in the league, who will be keen to make amends for slipping up against weaker opposition this weekend.
Your Kentdale Kendal Man of the Match : Nick Carlton
Two tries and a number of important tackles, saw Nick just beat Danny Barker, who was just ahead of Glen Weightman, in a game where votes were spread across nine players.
The tries saw Nick consolidate his position at the top of the try scoring chart on seven, with Glen’s try bringing him even in second place with Rory Blakeney Edwards and Greg Wrathall on four, with Chris Evans, Dini Noyo and Jordan Johnson just behind on three. The backs lead the forwards 24v14 tries
Action | Team | No | Name | Time | |||
Try | Kendal | 9 | Lewis Kincart | 3 | 0 | 5 | |
Con | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 4 | 0 | 7 | |
Try | Kendal | 11 | Nick Carlton | 6 | 0 | 12 | |
Try | Scarborough | 13 | Henry Hocking | 16 | 5 | 12 | |
Con | Scarborough | 13 | Henry Hocking | 17 | 7 | 12 | |
Try | Scarborough | ? | 21 | 12 | 12 | ||
Try | Kendal | 11 | Nick Carlton | 28 | 12 | 17 | |
Try | Scarborough | 13 | Henry Hocking | 39 | 17 | 17 | |
Pen | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 40 | 17 | 20 | |
= = = | = = = | = = = | HALF TIME | 40 | 17 | 20 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 16 | Jack Lashley | 54 | 17 | 20 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 3 | Logan Flett | 54 | 17 | 20 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 17 | Joe Lashley | 54 | 17 | 20 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 6 | Steven Nekson | 54 | 17 | 20 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 18 | Jordan Johnson | 54 | 17 | 20 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 9 | Lewis Kincart | 54 | 17 | 20 | |
Try | Scarborough | 15 | Tom Harrison | 55 | 22 | 20 | |
Con | Scarborough | 13 | Henry Hocking | 56 | 24 | 20 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 9 | Lewis Kincart | 58 | 24 | 20 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 12 | Danny Barker | 58 | 24 | 20 | |
Y/C | Kendal | 16 | Jack Lashley | 64 | 24 | 20 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 12 | Danny Barker | 69 | 24 | 20 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 14 | Dan Shorrock | 69 | 24 | 20 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 3 | Logan Flett | 71 | 24 | 20 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 8 | Dan Greenwood | 71 | 24 | 20 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 8 | Dan Greenwood | ? | 24 | 20 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 3 | Logan Flett | ? | 24 | 20 | |
Try | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 82 | 24 | 25 | |
Con | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 83 | 24 | 27 | |
= = = | = = = | = = = | FULL TIME | 87 | 24 | 27 |
Scarborough | Kendal | |
Tom Harrison | 15 | Chris Park |
Jack Anderson | 14 | Dan Shorrock |
Henry Hocking | 13 | Mark Carruthers |
Billy Parker | 12 | Danny Barker |
Joe Marshall | 11 | Nick Carlton |
Tom Radcliffe | 10 | Glen Weightman |
Jordi Wakeham | 9 | Lewis Kincart |
Matty Jones | 1 | Glenn Chesher |
Stuart Smyth | 2 | Robbie Collinson |
Joe Nellist | 3 | Logan Flett |
Luke Brown | 4 | Chris Evans |
Phil Watson | 5 | Greg Wrathall |
Will Leah | 6 | Steven Nelson |
Chris Purdy | 7 | Matty Houghton |
Aaron Wilson | 8 | Dan Greenwood |
Lewis Cowlishaw | sub (18) | Jordon Johnson |
Nino Cutino | sub (16) | Jack Lashley |
Jordan Holloway | sub (17) | Joe Lashley |
Simon Lazonby | Ref |