Narrow Bonus Point Win

A first ever visit to Malton & Norton, who had won away in the Yorkshire Cup at league leaders Scarborough last weekend, when Kendal had a weekend off after their narrow home loss to Moortown a fortnight go.

Greg Wrathall, Jordan Johnson and Nick Carlton returned to the team, with Tom Moulton, Alistair Thompson and in a late change Kieran Ward in an all forward bench.

Kendal started well with Nick Carlton making a break, but it was Malton & Newton who had the lead after just three minutes.

M&N won poor lineout ball deep in their own half, Kendal almost turned the ball over, but instead M&N broke out from their own half, with some slick passing and offloading, to outwit the Kendal defence for a try by centre Tom Foan, converted by scrum half Paul Angus 7v0.

M&N had the better of the play, but Kendal tied the scores after twelve minute. A poor clearance kick was gathered by Rory Blakeney-Edwards at fullback, who set up a counterattack. After good build up work, when the ball came out to Glen Weightman, he broke through the M&N defence, and after juggling with the ball got a pass to Steven Nelson, who committed the defence before passing to Jordan Johnson for the try. Glen Weightman perfectly bisected the posts with the difficult conversion. 7v7.

Almost immediately Kendal had the lead. M&N won their own kick off back, but when the ball was spread wide, Nick Carlton perfectly anticipated an offload pass to intercept, and whilst chased had just enough to get to the line to score under the posts for a simple Glen Weightman conversion. 7v14

Kendal had the better of play and spent a long period attacking in the M&N half, but despite patient build up play, could not find a way through the defence, and were to be punished.

The ball was lost and centre Ben Tenge set up a counter attack, he passed to powerfully built right wing Nathan Pratt who powered down the touchline. Whilst he looked as if he could go all the way, instead he passed on to fullback Will Bell who went over unopposed for the try, which Paul Angus converted to tie the scores again. 14v14

After half an hour Kendal first lost Jack Lashley and then Steve Nelson to injury, with Tom Moulton and Alistair Thompson coming on.

Inbetween M&N stole Kendal scrum ball, only to concede a penalty for failing to release the ball.

There was no more scoring before half time, with the referee adding no time for the various injuries.

Kendal had the advantage of a slope in the second half, with the pitch also sloping into the far touchline.

There was an almost perfect start for Kendal, with Nick Carlton adding a second try after just two minutes. The ball was moved wide and nothing seemed on, with a number of M&D players between him and the line, but somehow he managed to weave through and force his way over for the try. Glen Weightman’s difficult conversion kick came back off the post. 14v19.

Kendal were soon back on the attack in the M&N half, with the opposition tiring, but then shot themselves in the foot by being reduced to thirteen men with two needless yellows cards.

First Ben Dixon was sent to the touchlines after blocking (?) a M&N player chasing his own chip deep in his own half, with Kendal in no danger.

M&N were then on the attack in the Kendal twenty two, when Robbie Collinson stole the ball and set off on a long run down the left touchline. He made it into the M&N half, and whilst he had support, the move was stopped, and then play was called back for a touch flag deep in the Kendal half. Jordan Johnson, who had already had two warnings from the referee, clearly said something, probably about whether Robbie had been in touch, and the referee sent him to the touchline (I was too far away and on the wrong side of the field to see if Robbie had gone into touch). So Kendal were down to thirteen men for five minutes.

M&N took advantage, a clearance kick found right wing Nathan Pratt who under no pressure set up a counterattack, the ball was moved wide and some poor tacking and good offloading, allowed centre Tom Foan to go down the left touchline for his second try, but crucially the difficult conversion was missed and the score were tied again. 19v19 with just under half an hour to play.

Before either player could return, Danny Barker, who was having another excellent afternoon in defence, was forced off, and with no backs on the bench Development team second row, Kieran Ward came on, with Alistair Thompson moving into the centre. Kendal already had Rory Blakeney-Edwards at scrum half, during the yellow card break. Fortunately Barker was soon able to return.

As the game entered the final quarter the benefit of the slope came into play, as Kendal trapped M&N in the corner and despite several attempts to escape, they resulted in poor kicks to touch, to allow Kendal to come back again.

Finally with just over ten minutes to play Kendal regained the lead. A Chris Evans run made ground and sucked in the defence, and when the ball came to Glen Weightman, he weaved through for a try but could not add a conversion. 19v24.

M&N switched the kick off, but it almost backfired going to Mark Carruthers, who gathered cleanly and a made good ground down the left wing, He chased his own kick with Nick Carlton in support, but M&N right wing Nathan Pratt managed to gather the ball to clear the danger

As time ran out Kendal mistakes put them under pressure. At a lineout, the forwards were too slow to join, and the referee penalised them. Then at two attacking scrums they were penalised, to hand the initiative back to M&N.

M&N pounded the Kendal defence but got little joy, and when deep in injury time the ball was knocked on it appeared it would be the last action of the game, but the referee decided to play on. Jordan Johnson was caught at the back of the scrum and M&N turned the ball over, only for another handing error to give Kendal another scrum, and the referee again played on.

Whilst the ball came back, this time Jordan Johnson’s clearance kick stayed in field.

However when given a third scrum Dan Greenwood made no mistake, picking the ball out of the scrum himself and hammering a kick well over the touchline to end the game and seal victory after seven minutes of nail biting added time.

This game could have gone either way. It was suggested to me at half time that the team who made the least mistakes would win. Both made too many, but it was still an entertaining game between two teams willing to run the ball. Malton & Norton, slick offloading game will always be subject to handling errors, especially when coming up against the powerful defence of Danny Barker and Mark Carruthers, whilst when he came on Alistair Thompson had a good game, continually disrupting the opposition flow. For Kendal too often good attacking opportunities were wasted with slow decision making meaning the backs were not getting the quick ball necessary to open up the opposition, but despite still not being at their best, they became the first visiting team to come away winners this season.

Your KENDAL MAN OF THE MATCH : Nick Carlton
Two tries (still not sure how he got through for the second) saw Nick head the vote by a few votes from Greg Wrathall, with the other ten who picked up a vote some way back.

More votes this weekend than a fortnight earlier in the home defeat against Moortown. Are away supporters more likely to vote or are there more votes when we are winning.

Hopefully the latter will be true this weekend !