Wirral came into the game on a poor run, with only two victories since they won at Mint Bridge in late November, but had previously only lost twice at home this season.
Chris Downham returned in the back row with Garry Holmes moving in to the front row, whilst Matthew Kaye came in at scrum half, with Dini Noyo moving to the wing, and Kris Bratton partnering Mike Fearon in the centre.
Wirral had the better start and there was a long period where Kendal did not even touch the ball.
After a period in defence Kendal conceded a penalty for a deliberate knock-on, on the line. The penalty was taken quickly and Wirral opened the scoring, but the conversion was not successful. 5v0.
Kendal were quickly back into the game and had a long range penalty attempt to narrow the gap but the kick failed. They stayed on the attack and opened their scoring when a powerful drive from the forwards proved unstoppable, with Chris Downham emerging with the ball and Glen Weightman adding the conversion. 5v7
There was an excellent hanging re-start from Wirral, but Kendal dealt well with it, and set up a break from Kris Bratton, when he passed to Dini Noyo he was taken out with a high tackle. This time the long penalty kick from Glen Weightman found the target 5v10.
Things soon got even better. Kendal failed to gather another excellent restart kick, but Wirral only put the ball into touch. From the lineout the Kendal forwards set up a drive, and when the ball was moved to Glen Weightman, he put a chip over the Wirral defence, which was coming up very fast. Mike Fearon followed the kick, and gathered the ball to fed Kris Bratton, who powered through one attempted tackle and went through to score under the posts, with Glen Weightman adding the conversion. 5v17 after just a quarter of an hour played.
Kendal continued to attack and when a penalty was indicated in the Wirral twenty-two, Glen Weightman went for a drop goal. Whilst this was not awarded, he made no mistake with the kick, when the referee came back for the penalty. 5v20
Even when Wirral had the ball, the Kendal defence was putting them under pressure to force mistakes. After half an hour, a knock on gave Kendal a scrum. Matthew Charters picked up and made a good break, before passing to Kris Bratton, who chipped ahead, gathering his own kick to score, with Glen Weightman again adding the conversion. 5v27.
Just before the end of the half, Wirral pulled a score back. A rare missed tackle allowed Wirral to make ground down the left. Kendal were penalised on the line, and the penalty was taken quickly. Wirral appeared to have an overlap on the right, but the Kendal defence got across to stop the score, however they could do nothing to prevent a try when the ball was recycled. The conversion failed. 10v27.
This remained the score at half-time.
Jack Lashley came on for Glenn Chesher at the start of the second half.
Wirral came out fired up, and Kendal were forced into conceding a number of penalties whilst defending close to their own line. Eventually Ross McKay was singled out for a yellow card.
Despite being a man down, the Kendal defence held firm. Wirral failed to secure clean ball from the resulting lineout, and were then penalised for a blocking runner obstructing the Kendal defence. Twice Kendal players managed to turnover ball, to end Wirral attacks, and the scoreline was unchanged when Kendal were restored to fifteen men.
Chris Park came on for Nathan Wooff after a quarter of an hour.
After a number of attempts had failed, with the final pass not going to hand, Kendal finally got their bonus point try after twenty five minutes. Wirral were penalised for offside and Glen Weightman took the penalty quickly, and went over for the try. Chris Park added the conversion. 10v34.
The fifth try came from a long Dini Noyo run down the right wing. He passed to Brett Ashley and when he was stopped, the ball was moved to Matthew Kaye, and whilst he was stopped on the line, he popped the ball up to Glen Weightman, to go over for his second try. Chris Park again added the conversion. 10v41.
Brett Ashley was injured as he went for the try, and had to go off with Nathan Wooff returning. Robbie Collinson also came on in place of Garry Holmes.
Kendal continued to attack, and their final try came from a Wirral lineout in their own twenty two. Wirral tried to run the ball from their own line, but the Kendal defence was up quickly and Kris Bratton, managed to steal the ball and go over for his third try. Chris Park added the conversion. 10v48.
Kendal continued to attack, looking for the score which would take them over fifty points, but could not add to their score.
So a second win at Wirral in two seasons, and Wirralās pursuit of a first double of the season continues.
After an opening five minutes where Wirral looked as if they could control the match, it was Kendal who dominated, and the quality of performance is best summed up by the fact that, but for a number of wrong options and handling errors, the score could have been a lot higher. It was pleasing to see the ball coming to the back division a lot more quickly than in recent games, and they certainly showed what they could do when they got it.
Wirral did have four players in their squad making their second or third appearance, but eight of the rest had played in their win at Kendal.
MAN OF THE MATCH : Kris Bratton
Three well taken tries, a number of powerful runs, but equally importantly some powerful tackling, to stop Wirral gaining an momentum saw Kris top the poll this week.
It wasn't all about the backs, as he only edged Garry Holmes by a vote.
Action | Team | No | Name | Time | Wir | Ken | |
Try | Wirral | ? | 5 | 5 | 0 | ||
Try | Kendal | 7 | Chris Downham | 11 | 5 | 5 | |
Con | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 12 | 5 | 7 | |
Pen | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 14 | 5 | 10 | |
Try | Kendal | 13 | Kris Bratton | 15 | 5 | 15 | |
Con | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 16 | 5 | 17 | |
Pen | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 21 | 5 | 20 | |
Try | Kendal | 13 | Kris Bratton | 33 | 5 | 25 | |
Con | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 34 | 5 | 27 | |
Try | Wirral | ? | 38 | 10 | 27 | ||
= = = | = = = | = = = | HALF TIME | 40+1 | 10 | 27 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 16 | Jack Lashley | 40 | 10 | 27 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 1 | Glenn Chesher | 40 | 10 | 27 | |
Y/C | Kendal | 4 | Ross McKay | 45 | 10 | 27 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 22 | Chris Park | 56 | 10 | 27 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 15 | Nathan Wooff | 56 | 10 | 27 | |
Try | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 65 | 10 | 32 | |
Con | Kendal | 22 | Chris Park | 66 | 10 | 34 | |
Try | Kendal | 10 | Glen Weightman | 74 | 10 | 39 | |
Con | Kendal | 22 | Chris Park | 75 | 10 | 41 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 19 | Robbie Collinson | 76 | 10 | 41 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 2 | Garry Holmes | 76 | 10 | 41 | |
sub-on | Kendal | 15 | Nathan Wooff | 76 | 10 | 41 | |
sub-off | Kendal | 14 | Brett Ashley | 76 | 10 | 41 | |
Try | Kendal | 13 | Kris Bratton | 78 | 10 | 46 | |
Con | Kendal | 22 | Chris Park | 79 | 10 | 48 | |
= = = | = = = | = = = | FULL TIME | 85 | 10 | 48 |
Wirral | Kendal | |
Jimmy Annetts | 15 | Nathan Wooff |
Danny Phillips | 14 | Brett Ashley |
Danny Harvey | 13 | Kris Bratton |
Kieran Sweeney | 12 (21) | Mike Fearon |
Mark Gidman | 11 | Dini Noyo |
Craig Harvey (C) | 10 | Glen Weightman |
Ben Cornforth | 9 | Matthew Kaye |
Jack Yarker | 1 | Glenn Chesher |
Stuart Grafton | 2 | Garry Holmes |
Ryan Higginson | 3 | Dom Musetti |
Matt Dalton | 4 | Ross McKay |
Haydon Long | 5 | Ben Leacock |
James Reeve | 6 | Jacob Sutton |
Matt Dowler | 7 | Chris Downham |
Rob Pearl | 8 | Matthew Charters |
Joe Paton | sub (16) | Jack Lashley |
Tom Parry | sub (19) | Robbie Collinson |
Mark Williams | sub (22) | Chris Park |
Elliot Lewis | Ref | Manchester Society |