Hard Earned Victory

against Kendal, and did so again putting in a solid defensive performance.

Mark Carruthers came in on the left wing for Dini Noyo, who had returned home to South Africa. Duncan Green moved to hooker in place of Garry Holmes whose knee injury picked up against Rochdale could see him on the sidelines for some time. Jack Lashley came in at prop.

The opening exchanges were even, but Kendal soon had Carlisle penned in their own half from which they rarely escaped. An early opportunity to open the scoring went, as Nathan Wooff slipped as he kicked a penalty, awarded after Carlisle illegally stopped a Kendal drive from a lineout, and the kick dropped short.

Kendal kept the pressure on, but could not convert it into points, with the Carlisle defence up quick to stop any Kendal back moves, and dealing well with kicks through. A number of handing errors did not help Kendal momentum.

Kendal finally took the lead after twenty minutes with a Nathan Wooff penalty 3v0

Two minutes later Wooff doubled the lead with a second penalty, the award of which seemed slight fortuitous, as Kendal appeared to have earlier lost the ball in contact. 6v0.

Carlisle came straight back into the game with their first real attack. Kendal were unable to deal with a kick through and under pressure Glenn Weightman was forced to put the ball to touch for a Carlisle throw. Whilst Kendal were able to stop the drive, Carlisle stayed on the attack and drove over from a lineout after Kendal had been penalised. 6v5.

Kendal almost immediately restored and then extended their lead. After the re-start Chris Downham gathered a Carlisle clearance kick and made ground downfield. James Gough gathered a difficult pass, and when the ball was spun to the left, Matty Houghton did not need the support outside him and ran in for a try. Nathan Wooff added the difficult conversion from close to the touchline. 13v5.

As the half came to the end, Kendal were forced to replace Chris Downham with James Thompson.

Carlisle were on another rare attack in injury time, but Liam Hayton managed to steal their lineout throw, and made good ground up the right hand touchline, but Kendal could not add to their score.

Kendal started the second half fired up. As the Carlisle defence came up quick to cut off a Kendal attack, Glenn Weightman chipped the ball ahead and gathered his own kick, James Gough was quickly in support and the ball was moved to the right where Matty Houghton made a break, but delayed his pass, which then failed to find the support players.

At a lineout, Kendal moved James Thompson and Josh Chaplow into mid-field, and when the ball came back Chaplow broke the defence and fed Danny Barker, who was stopped close to the line and Carlisle conceded a penalty, but Nathan Wooff was unable to convert.

After quarter of an hour, Kendal replaced Ben Leacock with Phil Murphy, and Murphy was immediately into the action, taking a lineout and setting up a drive, which Carlisle stopped illegally, leading to the referee issuing a yellow card to one of their players.

The penalty was taken to touch, Murphy gathered the ball again and the forwards drove the depleted Carlisle pack over, with Matty Houghton (?) emerging for his second try 18v5.

The yellow card was having a significant effect on the previously solid Carlisle scrum and the Kendal eight were starting to overpower the Carlisle scrum, and finally this forced a penalty that was put to touch. Phil Murphy took the lineout and as Kendal drove to the line, Carlisle illegally stopped it again, and the referee headed behind the posts to award a penalty try, and then returned to issue a yellow card to the perpetrator. Nathan Wooff added the conversion 25v5.

Chris Park replaced Glenn Weightman, and Kendal went looking for a further score for the bonus point, against a defence temporarily down to thirteen men, but could not find a way through and Carlisle even launched an attack of their own

As the game entered injury time Glen Weightman returned in place of Nathan Wooff, and sparked a break up the field from within the Kendal twenty two, but Kendal could not add further score.

Kendal will be disappointed to miss out on the bonus point, but whilst there were too many handling errors and poor options, it was often watertight defence from Carlisle that kept them out. Whilst Carlisle looked good in defence, they will need to find some more attacking options, to pull themselves away from the relegation battle, with teams below them starting to improve.

KENDAL MAN OF THE MATCH : Liam Hayton
After an excellent team performance no surprise that there were plenty of different nominations this week, with nine different players getting a vote, but Liam topped the poll, with backrow duo Josh Chaplow and Matty Houghton just behind.