Weathering the Storm

Matty Kaye came in at scrum half for James Gough and Ben Leacock replaced Phil Murphy in the second row, with Jack Morphet coming onto the bench, but otherwise this was the same team that had played so well last weekend against Wilmslow.

Kendal made an ideal start. From Blackburn’s kick off the ball was run back, giving Blackburn a lineout deep in their own half. The throw was adjudged to not be straight, and from the resulting scrum, Chris Downham picked up and broke away for a try. 0v5.

Any thoughts that Kendal would have it all their own way, as they had at home less than two months ago, were soon quashed as Blackburn immediately came back, and put Kendal under pressure on their own line. Several times it looked as if they would score, only for Kendal players to hold them up.

There was a blow for Kendal after ten minutes, when Chris Downham was forced off, with Jack Morphet coming off the bench to replace him, and Matty Houghton moving to No.8.

After a quarter of an hour the Blackburn pressure finally paid off, and their forwards drove over from a penalty lineout, for a try. In poor conditions for kickers, the kick was perfectly judged with the wind taking it over, to give Blackburn the lead. 7v5.

This however lasted just two minutes, as directly from the kick off Blackburn were penalised and Glenn Weightman slotted over the kick. 7v8.

This lead was extended after twenty five minutes. Kendal lost their own lineout, but Duncan Green immediately won the ball back, and Matty Houghton broke away to the line. Whilst he was stopped, the ball came back and was quickly moved wide for Zane Butler to score. 7v13.

Kendal were soon back on the attack and only a knock-on ended a move. The Blackburn pack had been well on top in the scrum, but the Kendal eight managed to steal the ball, and again Matty Houghton broke for the line, with Damian Armstrong finishing the move off with a try, that Glenn Weightman converted 7v20.

Any thoughts that Kendal would run away with the game were again quickly extinguished. Blackburn had a long period on the attack in the Kendal twenty two, and when the ball went loose, Zane Butler put in what appeared to be an excellent long clearing kick, but instead it was gathered on the left wing, and the Blackburn player set off on a run across field, then down the right, with last line of defence Nathan Wooff being unable to get a hand on him, as he scorched home for the solo try 12v20.

Better was to follow for Blackburn as they added a further converted try before half time, from a second driven lineout. 19v20 at half time.

Kendal came out fired up for the second half, stepping up a gear. When the referee penalised Blackburn, instead of going for the posts, Glenn Weightman quickly ran the penalty, and Mark Carruthers managed to power his way through several tackles for the try, which Weightman converted. 19v27.

Again Blackburn came back, helped by Kendal conceding a number of penalties. After Kendal survived one scrum on the line, despite having their front row driven up, when offered a penalty, Blackburn took another scrum, and set up a drive over the line for a converted try from back row man Liam Canning. 26v27.

Kendal took action to stabilise the scrum, with the added bulk of Dom Musetti coming off the bench in place of Jack Lashley.

This worked well and the next score came from a better Kendal scrum, with Matty Houghton breaking away and being driven over the line for the score (?) with Glenn Weightman adding the conversion. 26v34

Kendal had to weather more Blackburn attacks, but finally seemed to be containing them. Glenn Weightman had a number of kicks at goal to extend the lead, but was unsuccessful in the difficult conditions, but finally slotted one over with ten minutes to play, to make the lead more comfortable. 26v37.

Kendal made a further substitution with Jack Morphet coming off, and being replaced by Chris Park, with Damian Armstrong joining the back row, and Zane Butler moving into the centre.

Blackburn’s attempts to escape their half became more desperate, and they were lucky not to concede a further score, when Zane Butler just failed to cling onto an interception of a wayward pass, which if he had gathered it would have put him under the posts.

There were no further scores, and Jack Lashley returned to the field in place of for Glenn Chesher at the end of the game.

Despite being below the high standard of their win against Wilmslow, the close result was not down to a poor Kendal performance, but due to excellent effort by Blackburn. Matty Kaye and Ben Leacock both had good games.

Whoever coined the term “global warming” to describe “climate change” had clearly not visited Northern England in mid-April, as long periods of the game were played in a hailstorm / snow shower.

In terms of league points it was mission accomplished with another five in the bag, but there will need to be a step up again against Leigh next weekend, (who beat Penrith this weekend) to ensure no slip ups before the all important game at the end of the month against Kirkby, as they also won with a bonus point at Wilmslow.

KENDAL MAN OF THE MATCH : Matty Houghton
Another outstanding display, and possibly one of the most decisive votes, despite getting less than half the votes, the other half were shared between eight different players. Again demonstrating an excellent team effort, against what turned out to be a very difficult set of opponents

PHOTO : Maybe Summer rugby isn't such a good idea ?