Excellent Performance but Defeat in Dreadful Conditions

Kendal hosted second in the table Birkenhead Park, looking to avenge the big defeat at the start of the season, when Richard Harryman’s wedding meant a young team had travelled. Only six of that squad made this one, whilst Park fielded fifteen of their squad from the first encounter.

The game was played in very wet and windy conditions, which effected the game.

Kendal opened the scoring after five minutes. Andrew Boardley put a penalty to touch in the Birkenhead Park twenty-two. The ball was taken cleanly at the lineout, and the forwards drove to the line, where No.8 James Thompson broke away to score. Andrew Boardley almost judged the kick perfectly, despite the strong wind, but the conversion, from close to the touchline, came back off the post. 5v0.

Birkenhead Park came back into the game and tested the Kendal defence, which was a match for everything thrown at them, with very few attackers escaping tackles. Finally the defence was caught offside in front of the posts and the penalty was converted 5v3.

Kendal then had a period on the attack, but found the Park’s defence to be equally solid.

The second Kendal try came from another penalty into the Birkenhead Park twenty two. Again the forwards drove to the line, with Reece Tomlinson credited with the try. This time, from the opposite touchline, Andrew Boardley put over an excellent conversion. 12v3.

Matty Houghton replaced Glen Chesher in the Kendal pack, and was soon in action in defence as Birkenhead Park sought to breach the Kendal defence in their rare periods in attack.

After half an hour of play Kendal were again caught offside in midfield and a second penalty narrowed the lead 12v6.

A good run from Chris Park, who had fielded a kick out of defence, put Kendal on the attack, and from the resulting scrum Dan Lowther put a kick to the line, which was chased by Ian Voortman, forcing Birkenhead Park to conceded a scrum, although the player seemed fortunately not to be penalised further, for punching the ball dead.

Park were caught offside, and Andrew Boardley extended the lead with a minute of normal time to go, but this was wiped out in injury time with a third Park penalty for offside in the Kendal defence 15v9.

Having had the advantage of the strong wind in the first half, the narrow lead looked too small as Park came out at the start of the second half and put pressure on the Kendal line, forcing another penalty to be conceded in midfield. 15v12.

Park took the lead after a quarter of an hour of play. Kendal had been on the attack, but when the ball was turned over a long kick was put down field. Matty Houghton did well to gather the ball, but was then forced into touch. Whilst the Kendal defence held out, Park stayed on the attack and their forwards finally drove over for a try by hooker Stu Brown, which was not converted. 15v17.

Despite the wind having got even stronger, Kendal were still pressing, and were in total control of the scrum, driving Park off their own feed several times. Park brought experienced veteran prop Martin o’Keefe on, but even he was unable to stop the Kendal pressure.

Kendal had a chance to retake the lead, but the wind was too strong and the quickly taken penalty drifted wide. They stayed on the attack with the forwards search for a gap on the Park defence.

A second penalty from closer range also failed into the blustery strong wind.

The effect of the new scrumaging laws was then shown, when after disrupting several Birkenhead Park scrums, Kendal had their own scrum disrupted when they had a put in close to the Park line.

After withstanding a long period of pressure, when they turned the ball over, Park adventurously ran the ball out of defence, rather than using the strong wind, and only the dreadful underfoot conditions, which saw several players slip, probably prevented a score. Back on the attack, Park were able to add a fifth penalty, to extend their lead, and were able to see the game out for victory. 15v20.

So Kendal had to settle for the fifth losing bonus point in seven defeats, despite outscoring their visitors two tries to one. This was however an excellent attempt against one of the top clubs in the league, after wobbling badly in the early stages of the abandoned game against a team from the other end of the table last weekend. Defence and ball retention whilst on the attack were much improved, and if this can be taken forward into the New Year, and games against teams around Kendal in the league, the team should start to climb the table again.

Hopefully the three week layoff over the Christmas period will also give some of the injuries time to heel, especially amongst the back division.

The next game is away at Warrington on 4th January, and the next game at Mint Bridge is a week later on the 11th against Carlisle. The abandoned game away at Altrincham Kersal has now been re-arranged for Saturday 18th January.

photo : The Kendal pack drive to the line to set up the first try