Dini Magic !

With James Gough carrying an injury, Leo Mercer came in on the wing, with Dini Noyo moving to scrum half. In the pack, injured Jack Walker was replaced by Blake Robinson, with John Dervey coming in on the bench, and in a late change, Jack Lashley dropped out due to illness, and Dom Musetti took his place, with Richard Harryman coming onto the bench.

It was a bright sunny afternoon on Merseyside, and both teams had chances in the opening exchanges with Kendal probably having slightly the better of the play.

It took twenty five minutes to break the deadlock. Glenn Weightman put a long kick downfield which resulted in a Waterloo mistake. With the referee playing advantage, the ball was moved from left to right and Matty Houghton on the wing powered over for a try, which Glenn Weightman converted. 0v7.

Damian Armstrong had been injured in the build up to the try, and went off to be replaced by Nathan Wooff.

If it had taken a long time for the first score, the second came almost immediately.

Liam Hayton tapped the kick off back to Dom Musetti, who found himself in space on the right. He made ground and when stopped the ball was quickly moved left, where Zane Butler making a break down the wing, before Matty Houghton in support was on hand to go over for his second try, which again Glenn Weightman converted. 0v14.

Waterloo came back into the game, and pounded the Kendal line, but when a penalty was put to touch, the ball was lost and Blake Robinson made a good run out of defence.

The Kendal backs were looking dangerous with ball in hand, with Dini at scrum half making sure the ball was back in play as quickly as possible, but too often moves were overcomplicated, and the ball went to ground, breaking the momentum.

Kendal were good value for their half time 0v14 lead.

At half time Damian Armstrong returned for Chris Park, and John Dervey made his debut for Matty Houghton.

Waterloo made the better start to the half, with their forwards, who had struggled at times in the first half, starting to dominate. This led to Kendal making a change after five minutes, with Richard Harryman coming on for Dom Musetti. This seemed to have an immediate impact, as Kendal won a scrum on their own line, with James Thompson making a break out of defence, then passing to Dini Noyo who took the move into the Waterloo half. When he was stopped Nathan Wooff took the move on, then after the ball went through several pairs of hands, including Richard Harryman back in support, Leo Mercer went over for the try, in a move which had gone the length of the field. The conversion was unsuccessful. 0v19.

The score line did not really reflect Waterloo early efforts, and five minutes later they had their opening score, when second row Matt Tindall, got the touchdown after a drive from a line out. The try was converted 7v19.

Five minutes later, Waterloo mounted an attack from their own half, and broke down the left wing taking advantage of a missed tackle. Dini Noyo got back to make a try saving tackle, but it had been high, leading to a penalty and a yellow card for Dini.

Waterloo worked to exploit their numerical advantage, and from a scrum No. 8 Jack Weare went over for the try, which was converted to narrow the gap to 14v19.

With Waterloo in the acendency, Chris Park returned for the injured Danny Barker, and Matty Houghton returned for Glenn Chesher, with Duncan Green moving to prop and Matty hooking.

With time running out a bit of skill from the Waterloo outside half set up a try to tie the scores. He chipped ahead and when Kendal failed to contest, managed to gather his own kick, then a kick was put to the left hand corner which was again gathered by a Waterloo player to score. 19v19 with the difficult conversion to come. The ball kept very low, but was on target, only to bounce back off the crossbar to keep the scores level.

With Waterloo well on top, they went for the final score to snatch a victory, which earlier had seemed highly unlikely, but their over eagerness was to be their downfall. First when Kendal had the ball, they were penalised for handling in the ruck. Glenn Weightman had a long range penalty to snatch victory, but it drifted wide.

Waterloo players then tried to take a quick short drop out, but it went wrong when the ball was knocked on, to give Kendal a scrum on left, on the twenty two metre line.

Everything seemed set for a Glenn Weightman drop goal, as he discussed plans before the ball went in. Kendal secured the ball and James Thompson picked up the ball, and passed to Dini Noyo, but the pass to Weightman never came, as Dini spotted a gap in the defence and flew through it, he still had plenty to do but a few jinks and he was over for the vital touchdown. Glenn Weightman added the conversion, meaning that whilst the referee played on Kendal, could not be beaten and had a try scoring bonus point in the bag.

Waterloo won the kick off ball, back but a handling error turned the ball over to Kendal. Instead of putting the ball dead, they ran the ball, and whilst the move broke down, with another handling error, the referee blew for full time.

So after the heartbreak at the end last weekend, this time it was Kendal who snatched late victory, but it should not have been necessary.

After such dominance in the first half, the coaches will be examining what went wrong after half time, and how a Waterloo pack, which was not as powerfully built as Hull, were able to dominate. The first half handling errors, and poor decisions in the lineout in the second half, will also be a concern, but again there was plenty of promise for the future in parts of this performance, if these problems can be addressed.

Referee Peter Steniford had a good game, always seeming to be on the spot, enforcing some of the latest law changes - to the occasional confusion of those on the touchline.

So a first away win in the National Leagues since Luctonians back in April 2011

Next week it is Huddersfield, who have had a unbeaten start to the season, after dropping down from League Two at the end of last season, so another tough test.

KENDAL MAN OF THE MATCH Dini Noyo
Apart from the late late try, a key part in the build up to the third try, as defence was turned into attack, a try saving tackle, plus the normal all action performance, so no surprise with Dini pick up half the votes