Last Gasp Try Seals Win

away at New Brighton.

Kendal were forced to re-organise their team, as Leo Mercer was unavailable with his place taken by new signing Samoan Bob Mataia. Tom Voke had picked up an injury in training and was replaced by Chris Downam, whilst Rhys Studt started in place of Matty Houghton, and Jordan Johnson started the game, with Alistair Thompson on the bench.

After last week’s slow start, Kendal started well with Bob Mataia immediately making his presence felt, with a powerful run down the left touchline. This set up a position from which Chris Park opened the scoring with a straight forward penalty. 0v3

Wilmslow were straight back into the game, retaining the ball from their restart and setting up camp in the Kendal half. From a lineout they gave the Kendal pack a piece of their own medicine, with an excellent rolling maul. Whilst this was stopped, a penalty gave them a lineout, and instead of going for another drive, a planned moved saw the ball quickly moved back to the touchline, for a try. 5v3.

The lively Wilmslow pack, were preventing Kendal getting any foothold, protecting their own ball, and competing for Kendal ball at the breakdown.

After twenty five minutes Wilmslow extended their lead. Their left wing made an good break, and whilst he was stopped just short of the line, the ball was quickly re-cycled. A try on the left touchline looked certain, but Richard Harryman managed to make a crunching tackle. Wilmslow were not to be denied, and the ball was moved back to the right for an excellent try, plus touchline conversion. 12v3.

It looked as if Kendal could get back into the game, when Bob Mataia made another thundering break down the left, and Dan Lowther had done well to get in support, but the loose pass went astray, and the chance was gone.

With half an hour played, Kendal re-organised with Blake Robinson and Alistair Thompson replacing James Thompson and Jordan Johnson.

Alistair Thompson was quickly into the action, as he followed a Dan Lowther kick, after Lowther had made a good break, but again the chance came to nothing.

The referee played five minutes of stoppage time, and this was to have a key effect on the outcome of the game. Chris Downham, now playing at No.8, made a powerful break from close to halfway to the line, before delivering the scoring pass to James Gough, to leave Kendal with only a four point deficit at halftime. 12v8

Whatever the coaches said at halftime worked, as Kendal made an explosive opening to the second half. Bob Mataia immediately charged down Wilmslow’s attempted return clearance kick, and this set up a position in the twenty two for a series of scrums, where the Kendal eight, had their opposite numbers under all sorts of pressure, but could not get the ball across the line.

Finally the referee gave a Wilmslow second row a yellow card, but their coaches reacted quickly bringing fresh legs to try to shore up their scrum. Even this proved fruitless as the referee awarded a penalty try, when they offended at the next scrum. Chris Park added the conversion and Kendal had the lead. 12v15.

Wilmslow were quickly back on the attack, and had an opportunity to draw the scores level with a long range penalty, whilst still down to fourteen men, but it drifted wide.

With a quarter of an hour played, Kendal brought Billy Coxon on to replace Duncan Green.

As the game entered its final quarter, Wilmslow re-took the lead. An excellent run by their outside half, led to a converted try by their flanker. 19v15.

Chris Park was forced off with an injury with Jordan Johnson replacing him, whilst James Thompson returned for Rhys Studt.

With time running out a penalty gave Kendal a lineout deep in the Wilmslow half. Whilst the lineout ball was lost, Kendal pressure forced a second penalty, where a kick took play to the line. The throw was judged not straight, but at the resulting scrum the ball squirted out of the side, and for a second week James Gough reacted quickly to gather the ball and scamper over. Nathan Wooff put over the difficult conversion, to give Kendal the decisive two score lead, going into injury time. 19v22.

The Wilmslow forwards came close to gathering their kick off again, but crucially knocked on. They then put the Kendal pack under pressure, as they ran the clock down, but Kendal held on for the win.

If the Kendal coaches were scratching their heads wondering what had happened after the fluent performance last week, they only needed to look at the next door changing rooms and their opposite numbers wondering how this one had got away, after such a good performance.

There were a number of good individual performances, but too often players became isolated, allowing the quick Wilmslow pack to cut off ball.

On the basis of the last two weekends, competition this season could be even tougher than last.