From the kick off, Kendal appeared to be harshly penalised, for a tackle on Wilmslow player who caught the ball, who had appeared to have been back on the ground. The penalty put Wilmslow on the attack. For a second weekend Kendal were forced to spend a long period defending against a team who kept the ball in hand for many phases of play, but again they were a match to this.
There was an early blow for Kendal, as powerful centre Bob Mataia was forced off, with Alistair Thompson slotting into the centre, and having a good game as part of the relentless defence.
Kendal were fortunate to survive on two occasions, as Wilmslow errors gave away clear try scoring opportunities. A ball was moved to the left, with a player having a clear run to the line, if he had been able to collect the pass, but it was dropped. Then after a powerful break by Wilmslow No.8 Alex Taylor (?), splitting the Kendal defence, Wilmslow had a three man overlap, but the referee adjudged the final pass to be forward.
Wilmslow finally opened the scoring after twenty five minutes. There was a break from a scrum on the right, and a pass was put to the wing for a score. The Wilmslow kicker looked far from confident, and his conversion attempt failed. 0v5.
Against the early run of play, Kendal came back into the game and had an attack down the right. On almost their first visit to the Wilmslow twenty two, the forwards seemed to have the ball under control on the Wilmslow line, but instead of keeping the ball tight, players broke away and a knock-on gave Wilmslow a chance to clear.
Wilmslow doubled their lead with five minutes of the half to play. A penalty gave them a lineout from which they took clean ball. The ball was worked out for prop Adam Taher to score. Again the kick at goal was missed, but Wilmslow seemed to be in control.
Kendal were however to open their own scoring before half time. A penalty was put into the Wilmslow twenty-two. Wilmslow had been putting pressure on the Kendal lineout throughout the half, forcing Kendal to look for more difficult long throws, whilst Wilmslow had been taking their own ball cleanly.
Again it looked as if Kendal had lost the ball, but James Thompson managed to tap it back. The ball was moved quickly into the centre, where Dini Noyo popped up to break through. Instead of going for the line himself, having committed the tacklers, he passed out to the unmarked Chris Park, who juggled with the ball, but kept it under control to score in the corner.
He was rewarded with the difficult conversion attempt from close to the touchline, and made no mistake, slotting the kick over. 7v10.
Kendal would have be relieved to have kept the deficit down at half time, having stepped up a gear several times in the second half of home games earlier in the season, as they attacked the club house end.
Kendal started the second half well. From the Wilmslow kick-off, James Gough appeared to be about to kick, but instead broke through the defence. Having taken the ball into the Wilmslow half, the ball was fed to Mark Carruthers, who did well to gather a difficult pass. When he was stopped, Gough took the ball on again, but the move broke down, when the referee penalised a Kendal player for failing to release the ball after a tackle, to the disagreement of the touchline support.
After six minutes of the half, Wilmslow extended their lead. Kendal had a lineout on the right, but again the throw was disrupted, and stolen by Wilmslow. Wilmslow took the ball across field and whilst the Kendal defence was holding firm, Wilmslow kept the ball and moved it back across field, where centre Richard Hughes broke through to score. Again the conversion was unsuccessful. 7v15.
Kendal made changes with Richard Harryman coming on for Jake Broomhead, and Rob Wightman, replacing Ben Leacock, who had had a difficult afternoon, against the strong Wilmslow jumpers. Wilmslow outside half Olly McCall, who had been at the centre of many of their moves, was forced off with an injury.
After a quarter of an hour, Kendal narrowed the gap. Glenn Weightman returned a Wilmslow kick out of defence, and followed his own kick to tackle the Wilmslow player who took the catch, who was forced to concede a penalty, which Chris Park put over. 10v15.
Three minutes later the gap was down to two points. Kendal had a lineout on the right, and the Wilmslow defence came up too quickly. The referee gave Chris Park an easy kick in front of the posts. 13v15.
Kendal tails were now up, and a penalty was put to touch, in the Wilmslow twenty two. From the lineout, the Kendal forwards drove to the line, but could not get across. They were finally penalised when the referee saw a double movement, when a player was trying to ground the ball for a try.
Kendal were starting to compete at the breakdown when Wilmslow had the ball, making it harder for the visitors to get clean ball to attack with. Kendal forced a penalty in their own half, when a Wilmslow forward held the ball on the ground, to avoid the ball being turned over. James Gough tried to take the ball for a quick penalty, but again a Wilmslow player failed to release the ball, and the referee moved the penalty ten metres forward. Despite the still being in his own half, and well to the left of the posts, Glenn Weightman indicated he would go for goal, and managed to put over an excellent kick, to give his team the lead for the first time, with just over ten minutes to play. 16v15.
Wilmslow were reduced to fourteen men, when flanker Adam Hewitt (?) was given a yellow card, for coming up offside too quickly to prevent a Kendal attack.
With five minutes to play Kendal extended the lead. From a scrum near halfway, the ball was moved quickly to the right wing. Chris Park burst through and on the line managed to break a tackle to score.
Again he put over the difficult conversion, to give Kendal the all important cushion of a two score lead, with time running out. 23v15
After the re-start Wilmslow again kept the ball through numerous phases, but could not make any impact on the Kendal defence, and were often being forced back, as the clock ran down.
Towards the end of the game, Bob Mataia returned to replace James Gough, who had been at the heart of the Kendal fight back.
Deep in injury time, Kendal’s defence was forced to concede a number of penalties, and finally Wilmslow decided to take a kick at goal, to try to narrow the gap for the losing bonus point, rather than look for a fourth try, and potential double bonus point. Despite their best kick of the afternoon, the ball again drifted wide, to end the game.
There will have been mixed feelings for the Kendal coaching staff, as their team had been second best for much of the game, but when it had mattered they had upped their game for the all important scores, to defeat a very good Wilmslow team.
For a second time this season, the Wilmslow coaches will be scratching their heads to see how they could have played so well against Kendal, but lost. Their team’s failure to convert any of their kicks at goal, on a day ideal for kickers, as Kendal’s demonstrated, was the deciding factor.
Kirkby Lonsdale captain Matt Hughes, who was in the crowd, will know his team will face a stern test when Wilmslow travel visit his team next weekend.
KENDAL MAN OF THE MATCH (as voted for by Website readers) : Chris Park (with 65% of the votes)
Kendal | Wilmslow | |
Nathan Wooff | 15 | Ben Day |
Chris Park | 14 | Connor McMurdock |
Bob Mataia | 13 | Sam Cutts |
Mark Carruthers | 12 | Richard Hughes |
Dini Noyo | 11 | Harry Patch |
Glen Weightman (19) | 10 | Olly McCall |
James Gough | 9 | Olly Wilkinson |
Duncan Green (17) | 1 | Adam Taher |
Robbie Collinson | 2 | Josh Whiteley |
Jake Broomhead (1) | 3 | Robert Taylor |
Liam Hayton | 4 | Matthew Sufflebottom |
Ben Leacock | 5 | Mikey Clifford |
Garry Holmes | 6 | Adam Hewitt |
Dan Greenwood | 7 | Mike Black (C) |
James Thompson | 8 | Alex Taylor |
Alistair Thompson (18) | sub | Jack Walmsey |
Richard Harryman (3) | sub | Rick Jones |
Rob Weightman (16) | sub | Tommy Wilkinson |
Ref : Tyrone Castles (Cumbria Referee Society) |
Action | Team | No | Name | Time | Kendal | Wilmslow | |
Sub off | Kendal | 13 | Bob Mataia | ? | |||
Sub on | Kendal | 18 | Alistair Thompson | ? | 0 | 0 | |
Try | Wilmslow | ? | 24 | 0 | 5 | ||
Try | Wilmslow | 1 | Adam Taher (?) | 37 | 0 | 10 | |
Try | Kendal | 14 | Chris Park | 40+1 | 5 | 10 | |
Con | Kendal | 14 | Chris Park | 40+2 | 7 | 10 | |
= = = | = = = | = = = | HALF TIME | 7 | 10 | ||
Try | Wilmslow | 12 | Richard Hughes | 46 | 7 | 15 | |
Sub off | Kendal | 1 | Jake Broomhead | 48 | 7 | 15 | |
Sub on | Kendal | 3 | Richard Harryman | 48 | 7 | 15 | |
Sub off | Wilmslow | 10 | Olly McCall | 49 | 7 | 15 | |
Sub on | Wilmslow | ? | 49 | 7 | 15 | ||
Sub off | Kendal | 5 | Ben Leacock | 52 | 7 | 15 | |
Sub on | Kendal | 16 | Rob Wightman | 52 | 7 | 15 | |
Pen | Kendal | 14 | Chris Park | 55 | 10 | 15 | |
Pen | Kendal | 14 | Chris Park | 58 | 13 | 15 | |
Pen | Kendal | 19 | Glenn Weightman | 68 | 16 | 15 | |
Y/C | Wilmslow | 6 | Adam Hewitt (?) | ? | 16 | 15 | |
Try | Kendal | 14 | Chris Park | 75 | 21 | 15 | |
Con | Kendal | 14 | Chris Park | 76 | 23 | 15 | |
Sub off | Kendal | 9 | James Gough | 80 | 23 | 15 | |
Sub on | Kendal | 13 | Bob Mataia | 80 | 23 | 15 | |
= = = | = = = | = = = | FULL TIME | 86 | 23 | 15 |