Kendal 17 (5) v (24) 24 Bradford & Bingley

comeback in the second half, Kendal could not retrieve the deficit.

After relegation from North East 1 last season, Bradford & Bingley will play in Yorkshire One this year, but on this performance are clearly intent on immediately bouncing back.

Bradford opened the scoring after five minutes with an unconverted try, from a lineout drive after a penalty. 0v5. Kendal then had to withstand further pressure, but this time the defence held firm against another driven lineout.

Kendal were back on level terms after a quarter of an hour of play. A penalty for offside gave Kendal a lineout close to the Bradford line. Ben Leacock took the ball, and broke through himself. When he was stopped the ball came back to Jordan Johnson, playing at scrum half, who jinked over for an unconverted try. 5v5.

Handling errors and problems securing lineout ball were restricting Kendal’s ability to attack, and the Bradford outside half was keen to drill the ball deep into the Kendal half, to force Kendal to try to play from close to their own line.

Bradford added two more driven tries from penalty lineouts, and with the last move of the half an excellent cross field passing move gave them a fourth try for a 5v24 half time lead.

The Kendal coaching team clearly shook things up at half time, and the team came out fast, doubling their score after just two minutes. Good pressure from the kick off, was followed by a break from captain Duncan Green. Alistair Thompson, who had come on at half time, took the move on, and when the move stopped on the line, Jordan Johnson passed to Garry Holmes who crashed over for the try. 10v24.

Kendal looked as they would score again, but after confusion in the centre, the referee penalised them for obstruction, and the chance was gone.

Kendal maintained the pace, and kept Bradford on the defence, with the ball often being quickly offloaded before tackles, but Bradford were able to slow the ball down at the breakdown.

After quarter of an hour Bradford were reduced to fourteen men, with a prop yellow carded, but Bradford held out and had their best period of the half, attacking the Kendal line.

Slow ball and the solid Bradford defence, kept the Kendal new centre combination, who had looked impressive in the previous game, in check.

Finally after half an hour Kendal added to the score. After stealing Bradford ball at a scrum on the line, Kendal stayed on the attack and from a scrum, Matty Houghton turned a poor pass to his favour, wrong footing the defence to drive over in the corner. Chris Park converted to bring Kendal within a score of drawing level. 17v24.

Kendal went looking for the score, but could not breakdown a solid Bradford defence as they held out for a win.

Much for the coaching team to work on, but with a number of key Kendal players not available, whilst Bradford played with rolling substitutes, with no apparent weakening of their team, the coaches will have been pleased with the second half fight back, but will be looking to cut out the errors, sort out the lineout frailty and improve ball retention at the breakdown, before a Preston Grasshoppers XV come to Mint Bridge for the final pre-season fixture on Thursday (27th).