Vale of Lune U15s 22 - Kendal U15s 22.

Following a week where the “lurgy” has spread throughout the local schools, Kendal travelled to Powderhouse Lane with a weakened side, only able to field 14 players, yet they were confident they still had the firepower to trouble their hosts.
Playing into a strong wind, Kendal started strongly and pinned Vale into their 22 after strong runs from props Joe (playing his first game for the U15s) and Will, supported well by George and Leo from the second row who were also carrying strongly. However with none of the regular back row present for Kendal, they were struggling to get cohesion at the rucks, allowing Vale to turn over possession and use the wind to clear downfield. It was from one of these long clearance kicks that Vale got their first try, after a Kendal handling error when trying to collect the ball in their own 22.
It was a similar story for Vale’s 2nd and 4th tries both coming from long kicks down field after they had failed to make ground through the strong tackling defence of Alex, Nathan and Olly. In between these tries they had got their third try from a 5m line out.
So Kendal turned around at half time with a 22-0 deficit, and some stern words during the interval on securing the ruck, but mainly on focusing on the game and ignoring the chat from the opposition. This had the desired effect and without the aid of the wind Vale struggled to make significant yards in the second half, which allowed Iestyn and Alfie to control the territory with a good kicking game.
Kendal’s first try came following good work from the forward pack on the back of a 5m line, allowing Logan to barge over for an unconverted try. Still a long way to go, but Kendal now are the heads up and knew how to hurt the opposition. Kurt had come on at half time for his first rugby in several months and his barnstorming runs and strong tackles lifted the whole team and when turnover ball was won just outside the Vale 22, Alfie dummied his was through the back line to score out wide, again this was unconverted to leave the score at 22-10.
With time running out it looked as though all Kendal could hope for was another consolation try and when a loose kick out of the Vale defence was gathered by Roan, he managed to out pace the cover defence to run in out wide, before using the deep in goal area to take the ball closer to the posts, but still leaving a tricky conversion, which Alfie duly slotted to make it 22-17. This was followed by the encouraging news that 3 minutes still remained.
Kendal weren’t able to gather the re-start though and so it looked like the chance had gone, but following a scrappy bit of play a kick down field was recovered by Kendal and after a few phases of play, Kurt popped up in the back line to fire a wide pass out to Casper who showed great pace to beat his man on the outside and score on the left wing. The unlikely conversion fell agonisingly short to leave a fair result of 22-22. An excellent game to watch, lots of learning points will have been taken by all the players and the feeling they had at the final try and resulting celebration will no doubt stay with them for the rest of the season.