1st XV
Matches
Sat 04 Sep 2021  ·  North One West
Carlisle
7
45
Kendal R.U.F.C.
1st XV
Tries: B Dixon (3), S Nelson, K Bratton, D Lowther, M CarruthersConversions: G Weightman (5)Yellow Carded: R Mckay
Highly Promising Performance

Highly Promising Performance

Mark Hodgkiss4 Sep 2021 - 19:11
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https://www.kendalrugby.co.uk/

but there is plenty more to come ....

League rugby returned after almost eighteen months, and Kendal had what appeared a tough opening game, away at a Carlisle team who had dropped down from the North Premier Division at the end of the shortened 2019/20 season, and two years ago had powered past a Kendal team on the same ground in the Cumbria Cup

Despite fielding just three new recruits, two of whom, Reece Tomlinson and James Gough, were making a return to Kendal colours, whilst prop Hugh Davies finally made his debut after a long wait, Kendal field just four players in the same position who played in their last game at West Hartlepool, and in that game Ross McKay was making his only appearance of the season. Three more had played in different positions, two returned from injury, whilst three had been unavailable for that game.

In a late change Chris Park had had to drop out, so Kris Bratton switched from right wing to fullback with Jordan Johnson coming off the bench to the wing, and his place being taken by Dan Lowther.

Kendal could not have a much better start. Glen Weightman’s kick off was returned direct to touch by Carlisle, giving Kendal an attacking lineout. Reece Tomlinson took the throw and the forwards set up a powerful drive to the line. Whilst they could not get across, when the ball came out, Glen Weightman threw a long pass to the unmarked Jordan Johnson on the left wing. Whilst it failed to find its target, centre Ben Dixon had looped around to gather the ball, then a slight change of direction wrong footed the defence for Dixon to go through to score. 0v5 after just two minutes.

Carlisle had the better of the next ten minutes forcing Kendal into conceding a string of penalties, but the defence stood firm, and finally Matt Houghton forced a penalty to allow Glen Weightman to clear the pressure.

Play switched with Carlisle forced into conceding penalties, but Kendal could not make a break through until just after quarter of an hour of play. A penalty was run, and Steven Nelson powered to the line. Whilst stopped by the Carlisle defence, he was able to force his way over and get the ball to ground between the posts giving Glen Weightman a simple conversion 0v12.

There had been a number of flare ups between the two packs, and after Kendal had been penalised, a Carlisle player who had Reece Tomlinson held off the ground, dropped him to the ground dangerously, and after another mass altercation, seemed fortunate to escape with just a yellow card. Tomlinson was soon back in action after treatment.

Kendal could not make the extra man pay and the score was unchanged at half time.

Carlisle seemed to have made a perfect start to the second half, stealing their kick off back off an isolated Matt Houghton, and setting up an attack on the Kendal line, but a loose pass was to reverse the fortunes. Ben Dixon playing in the centre excellently anticipated the pass to intercept, and went almost the full length of field, outwitting the Carlisle defence to score, with Glen Weightman adding the conversion to open up the lead 0v19.

From the kick off Glen Weightman seemed to have put in an excellent return kick, but poor chasing gave Carlisle the chance to exploit the new 50:20 rule putting a kick from their own half into the Kendal twenty two to get a lineout and put pressure on Kendal, but the defence held firm.

Another Glen Weightman kick was to lead to bonus point try. The Carlisle defence in midfield failed to deal with the kick, and whilst the first wave of Kendal players also overran the bouncing ball, Danny Barker swept it up, and when the ball was moved to fullback Kris Bratton in space on the left, there was only going to be one outcome, as he wove around the Carlisle defence for a try to power in under the posts, to give Glen Weightman a simple conversion. 0v26 ten minutes into the second half.

This triggered a re-jigging of the Kendal team, with Dan Greenwood replacing Steven Nelson in the back row, who dropped back to the centre, with Danny Barker going off. Dan Lowther came on for his first game after a long period of injury, going fullback with Kris Bratton replacing Jordan Johnson on the wing.

After a quarter of an hour, a Carlisle second row was yellow carded for an off the ball incident, and after a long period of treatment to Carlisle players, play resumed with a Carlisle put into a scrum near the line, which was uncontested.

As the scrum set up, Kendal wing Mark Carruthers was warning the backline that it appear Carlisle had a moved planned from the scrum. When Carlisle tried to run the ball from their own line, for a second time Ben Dixon perfectly anticipated a Carlisle pass to pluck it out of the air, and score, from a similar distance from the Carlisle line, than he had had to start his run from his own line for the first, for his hat trick. Glen Weightman again had no problem with the simple conversion 0v33

Kendal made a further change bringing fresh legs on with Tom Moulton replacing Hugh Davies who had done well, but was clearly feeling the pace of a fast game in now warm conditions.

Despite the scoreline Carlisle continued to attack, and with five minutes to play got a try. Good work on the line was stopped by Kendal, but eventually at the cost of a yellow card for Ross McKay*

A Carlisle player finally squeezed over on the far right at the clubhouse end, and his try was rewarded with an excellent touchline conversion. 7v33.

Kendal were however not finished, and were to end the game with two more tries in injury time.

Dan Greenwood who had played well since coming on, stole Carlisle ball and the ball was moved to Mark Carruthers on the right wing. After making ground, and having committed the last defence, he supplied a pass for Dan Lowther who was up in support at pace, and Lowther powered to score under the posts to give Glen Weightman another simple conversion. 7v40

The game was still not finished and after good work by the forwards down the left, when the ball was moved right, Mark Carruthers chose to head for the corner flag, and outpaced his defence to score. The kick drifted wide but ended an excellent opening victory 7v45**

Despite the result, the warning for others was this was far from a perfect performance, with too many penalties conceded and some confusion in the lineout after the excellent start. However with a solid defensive performance, a pack winning ball, and some impressive intelligent performances behind the pack. the prospects for the season look good. The strength in depth was shown by Dan Lowther and Dan Greenwood both standing out after they came off the bench, with Greenwood joining an already excellent back row performance.

Four of the Carlisle squad were stepping up from their Colts team, and will have had a tough introduction to League rugby. Carlisle may find, as we did two years ago, it takes time to click, but the size of the defeat was mostly down to the strength of the Kendal performance.

Your Kendal Man of the Match : Ben Dixon

FOOTNOTE :
The four who held their position from the West Hartlepool game were Glenn Chesher, Ross McKay, Steven Nelson and Glen Weighman, (if he had played Chris Park would have been a fifth) with Ben Dixon moving from the back row to centre, Mark Carruthers from centre to wing, and Jordan Johnson from scrum half to wing

Kris Bratton and Danny Barker were injured for that game, whilst Robbie Collinson, Matt Houghton and Greg Wrathall were all unavailable.

Tom Moulton and Dan Greenwood who started this game on the bench played, in that game.

(*) I only found this out when Ross returned, as I thought his departure was one of a number of rolling substitutions.

(**) the scoreboard said 7v43, but on the final whistle the referee agreed with my calculations (which are occasional out !)

Match details

Match date

Sat 04 Sep 2021

Kickoff

15:00

Competition

North One West

League position

1
Kendal
14
Carlisle
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Club Sponsor - Kentdale  Jaguar Land Rover
Match Ball Sponsor - Rathbones Investment Management
Shirt & Shorts Sponsor - Kendalife
Club Sponsor - Lakeland
Club Sponsor - Saint & Co
Club Sponsor - MTP Media
Casual Shirt Sponsor - Bainbridge Electrical Ltd
Shirt & Position Sponsor - Steve Selby Building Contractors
Next Door Neighbours - Camping & Caravanning Club: Kendal
Shirt Sponsor - MGD Commercial and Motor Services
Club Sponsor - Crema Catering Supplies Ltd.