Saving the Best Until Last

This time it was their turn to deliver the later drama.

With first choice players unavailable or rested, Kendal made eight changes to the team which started at Broughton Park last weekend, six in the pack, with eighteen year old prop Jake Broomhead making his club debut, but with the exception of Dan Greenwood and Robbie Collinson, the rest of the starting line up had already appeared for the first team this season.

Carlisle made a brisk started and opened the scoring after just four minutes with a long range penalty by centre Damian Armstrong, which went over off the crossbar. 3v0.

Carlisle immediately put themselves under pressure from the kick off with a knock on, and after sustaining some Kendal pressure, needlessly gave away a penalty for a late tackle on Glen Weightman, after he had put a long cross field kick towards Dini Noyo. The Carlisle pack however managed to hold up the Kendal drive from the lineout, to turn the ball over.

Kendal continued to attack and after good runs from Mark Carruthers and Dini Noyo, Carlisle were caught offside in midfield, but the penalty failed. Relief was however short lived for Carlisle, as Bob Mataia gathered a loose kick and bounced out of several attempted tackles, to charge down the right wing for a try, converted by Glen Weightman. 3v7.

Carlisle came straight back. Robbie Collinson made a good break from the kick off, but was isolated and gave away a penalty for failing to release the ball after the tackle. The referee was very sharp on this all afternoon, regularly penalising both teams, and almost always it was the team who took the ball in penalised, as both defending packs challenged for the ball on the ground.

Kendal did well to hold the powerful Carlisle pack on the line, after the drive from the resulting lineout, but when the ball was spread wide, they were unable to stop left wing Martin Brodie, adding to his try in the earlier meeting. 8v7

Kendal were struggling in the scrum, against a pack which had caused problems for a much more experienced Kendal eight last month. No.8 Dan Greenwood and young scrum half Matty Kaye, were both doing excellent work with poor ball, whilst Glen Weightman was making good use of the ball, keeping the Carlisle defence guessing, as he varied tactics.

The final try of the half was the best. A Carlisle player chipped the ball through, but Dino Noyo gathered and fed Nathan Woof who made a powerful run, Bob Mataia took the move on and Dan Greenwood was in support for the score. 8v12 at half time.

Kendal started the second half well, and again turned a loose Carlisle kick into attack. Mattie Kaye gathered and fed Nathan Woof who combined with Dini Noyo and Mark Carruthers to set up position for a penalty opportunity after three minutes, converted by Glenn Weightman to extend the Kendal lead. 8v15.

After a quarter of an hour, Kendal seemed to be in a good position, with players lined up on the right, but a pass was delayed too long, and Carlisle’s right wing anticipated it, intercepted to go in under the posts. 15v15 with the conversion from Damian Armstrong.

In almost a carbon copy of the move that won them the game earlier in the season, Carlisle ran the kick-off back, and having stretched the Kendal defences on the right, swung the ball left for the try. 20v15, with twenty minutes to play.

Kendal brought Josh Chaplow, Dan Lowther and Jack Lashley off the bench for Dan Greenwood, Nathan Woof and Jake Broomead.

Dan Lowther was soon in the action making a powerful break into the Carlisle twenty two, but became the latest player to be penalised for failing to release the ball when tackled.

A turning point came late on. A good Carlisle break down the left wing seemed to be about to set up a further score, but instead Alistair Thompson, not only stopped his man, but drove him into touch.

Carlisle gave away a penalty from which Glen Weightman found an excellent long touch, to turn defence into attack. Rob Wightman took the lineout ball which was moved into midfield, where Bob Mataia made a powerful break to the line, before getting a pass away to Dini Noyo who squeezed over in the corner. 20v20, with a minute of normal time to play. Glen Weightman had a difficult touchline conversion to seal the victory, but the kick failed.

As many on the touchlines pondered what happened in the event of a tie, there was a further twist to come.

When the restart kick came to Glen Weightman he appeared to be about to set his forwards up, for some drives through the middle, but instead he spotted a gap in the Carlisle defence, breaking through before feeding Dan Lowther, who powered towards the line, before delivering a pass to Dini Noyo, who squeeze over in the same spot for a second time in two minutes.

The difficult conversion again failed, but it was the final kick of the game, and Kendal continue into the next round of the Cumbria cup

After a few quiet weeks, the Kendal back division was back in form, with Nathan Woof, Dini Noyo and Bob Mataia all regularly breaking the defences, whilst when he came on Dan Lowther put in a number of destructive runs. Duncan Green and his young eight, with an average age of just twenty three, also did very well, to contain the much more powerful Carlisle eight.

The scale of loss of experience in the pack, is demonstrated by the fact that regular front row pairing of Billy Coxon and Richard Harryman, had both made their Kendal debuts, before debutant Jake Broomead was born. If the programme is to believed there was just one change in the Carlisle starting fifteen from their win three weeks ago, so this young side deserve great credit, against a Carlisle side which played very well, but tellingly made the odd error, which was crucially missing three weeks earlier.

KENDAL MAN OF THE MATCH (as voted by website readers) Robbie Collinson

PHOTO : Rob Wightman takes the ball, to start the move which drawed the scores level at the end of normal time