Excellent Performance

Both teams came into the game after losses last weekend, with Glossop in fourth having lost narrowly away at third placed Manchester, whilst Kendal were well beaten away at unbeaten league leaders Stockport.

Not the best of build-ups for Kendal, with Reece Tomlinson unavailable and last week’s Man of the Match Matt Houghton injured whilst prop Hugh Davies is still not ready to return. Behind the pack James Gough was out, and Ben Dixon not yet ready to return. On the positive side Nick Carlton who due to work commitments last played against Penrith in September, was back on the left wing.

Chris Evans and Dan Greenwood came in to the pack, with Jordan Johnson retaining his place at scrum half.

Not a good start as the kick off was short, although it appeared to make the distance before being played by a Glossop player, but it gave Glossop a scrum, which followed by a number of penalties, saw them keeping the ball through long periods, with Kendal hardly getting any possession.

Finally Kendal escaped the stranglehold, and a Glen Weightman kick down the left wing was chased by Lewis Kincart, who kicked ahead, but the ball rolled harmlessly in to touch.

This however set Kendal on the attack. When awarded a penalty, Glen Weightman chose to put the kick to the corner, but the lineout was lost.

After twenty minutes Kendal took the lead. Glen Weightman broke the defence, he got the ball away to Steven Nelson who went for the line, and when stopped he did well to get the ball to Danny Barker to crash over near the post for the opening try. Glen Weightman added the easy conversion. 7v0

Glossop came back into the game and ten minutes later opened their scoring, with a try in the right hand corner after a sustained attack in the Kendal twenty-two. 7v5.

Several times Glossop kicked to the left touchline, which appeared a dangerous tactic, with Lewis Kincart taking the kicks and making ground, and following his own kicks through. From one the referee decided there had been a knock on by the following Kendal player before the ball was grounded.

In added time Glen Weightman extended the lead with a penalty with the last play of the half.

Kendal made a change at half time with Chris Park coming on for Jordan Johnson, with Park going fullback, Dan Lowther on to the right wing, and Lewis Kincart to scrum half. This made an almost instant impact, with fast ball to Glen Weigthtman’s hands giving him more options, and stopping Glossop slow the game down.

The lead was extended after six minutes. The forwards had been stopped just short from a drive to the line, then in several attempts to barge over. With the referee playing advantage, a long pass missed out Steven Nelson, which gave Robbie Collinson enough space to go over from close range. Glen Weightman added the conversion 17v5.

The team were playing a high tempo game, with fast ball from Lewis Kincart, seeing Greg Wrathall and Chris Evans regularly breaking tackles, with good support from the rest of the pack to retain the ball, and allow the next wave to be launched, with Glen Weightman having lots of options to vary the play.

Glen Weightman was testing the Glossop defence with some long kicks, and whilst they were dealt with, good follow up tackles kept Glossop pinned back, with few opportunities to mount attacks.

After a quarter of an hour Steven Nelson was forced off to be replaced by Alistair Thompson, but Nelson was back ten minutes later for Dan Greenwood.

Regularly it looked as if another try was coming, but the Glossop defence held firm.

Finally on the half hour it came. Again good build up work by the forwards failed to get through the solid Glossop defence, but they could do nothing when they ran out of bodies, and a gap opened for Lewis Kincart to dart through, for a well deserved try. Glen Weightman added the conversion. 24v5

Alex Ryder came on to make his debut in place of Chris Evans, who had had a really good game in the loose. Then Dan Greenwood returned in place of Greg Wrathall, who like Evans had regularly made ground breaking tackles.

As the game came to the end Kendal looked for a fourth bonus point try, but it did not come.

The strengthen in depth of the depth of the squad this season was demonstrated, with those who came in doing really well. The margin of victory did not flatter the team, and they were unfortunately that one of the other chances had not been taken, to give maximum points. Still an excellent performance, against one of the other top teams in the League, to bounce back after last weekend.

Your Kendal Man of the Match : Lewis Kincart

I will not be at Douglas next week (even if the team are – and there still seems some doubt about travel restrictions), so no early report. If you are going, please take a pen and paper and send me some notes, if only on scorers and replacements.

OTHER RESULTS

Penrith who had been in second slipped up at Wilmslow (previously 11th)

A big win for narrow loss specialist Altrincham Kersal (2 wins in 12 but a +48 points points difference

TABLE

We move up from 6th to 4th, going above Glossop and Penrith, four points behind Manchester in second with those two postponed games to come.