Storming Second Half after Wild Weather of First

Playing their first game at Mint Bridge for over a month, with the next one not until early February, an unchanged Kendal team need a good performance against another of the top five clubs, to maintain their pursuit of the top two.

The Mint Bridge pitch was in good condition, despite the wild weather of the past week, but the first half was punctuated with freezing hail showers and a very strong wind, which Kendal had on their backs in the first half.

Penrith settled the quicker, and Kendal’s attempts to use the wind failed, as Penrith ran the ball back handling well despite the freezing conditions, keeping the ball tight.

Finally Kendal settled, and spent a long period in the Penrith twenty two, but despite repeated attempts the forwards could find no way through the Penrith defence. Several times the referee decided the ball had not been grounded as the pack drove over the over the line.

Having withstood the pressure, Penrith broke out of defence and Kendal had to do some defending of their own.

After twenty minutes James Thompson was replaced by Richard Harryman. Shortly after Nathan Wooff was force off, with Chris Park moving to fullback and Alistair Thompson moving onto the right wing.

Glen Weightman was unable to convert a long rang penalty.

Penrith came back and put Kendal under pressure in the their own twenty two, but when awarded what appeared a simple short range penalty from directly in front of the posts, chose not to go for goal.

Three minutes into injury time, Kendal finally broke the deadlock. Good work from Glenn Weightman near halfway, set James Gough loose on a run down the right. When he was stopped in the twenty two, Penrith were penalised and Weightman slotted over the penalty for a narrow 3v0 lead with the final kick of the half.

Penrith would have turned the happier, with the wind behind them in the second half, but Kendal came out strongly attacking their favoured clubhouse end of the ground. Nathan Wooff returned to the field wearing a head protector.

Glenn Weightman had an early opportunity to increase the lead, but was unable to convert a difficulty penalty, but Kendal continued to attack, and had a further penalty when Dini Noyo was high tackled as he went for the line. The kick was put to touch, but whilst Penrith stole the lineout ball, they were unable to escape their twenty two.

Kendal finally extended their lead after a quarter of an hour with a second Glenn Weightman penalty, after the Penrith No. 8 was yellow carded. 6v0.

Kendal were soon back on the attack, and the relentless pressure was clearly tiring the young Penrith team. Kendal were playing a simple game, keeping the ball in hand, and finally Garry Holmes was on hand to plunge over for the opening try, after good close range work from the forwards. Glen Wightman converted. 13v0.

Garry Holmes was on the spot again four minutes later for his second try, as the pack set up position on the Penrith line. 18v0

At the restart, Kendal made two substitutions with Alistair Thompson and Dan Greenwood coming on for Dini Noyo and Tim Voke. They got caught napping, as the restart kick was excellently gathered by a Penrith player, who headed for the line. Whilst he was stopped, the ball was moved to the right, and whilst there was a hint of a pass fumbled forward, Penrith had a two man overlap for a try by fullback Ben Littleton (?), which he converted. 18v7.

Kendal were not to be denied and came straight back. Matty Houghton made a break down the left touchline, but was forced out on the corner flag, before he could ground the ball, to give Penrith a drop out.

The wind had dropped and appeared to have switch to across the field, but frequent handling errors from the Penrith backs, showed that, just as it had been for Kendal in the first half, the wind was making handling difficult for the team attacking the far end of the ground.

With the game coming to an end, Kendal were awarded a penalty in the twenty two, and chose to run it, rather than put the ball to touch. The forwards took the ball to the line, but rather than try to force their way over, the ball was quickly released with Nathan Woof making a powerful break, before giving the scoring pass to Alistair Thompson who squeezed over at the corner. The difficult conversion was missed as it was taken quickly, with Kendal looking for a fourth bonus point try. 23v7.

In injury time, Nathan Wooff made an excellent break to the line, before the forwards took over, but they were not able to engineer a try, before the referee blew for full time.

A magnificent second half team performance, with forwards and backs combining to keep the ball tight and the defence guessing. It was to the credit of the young Penrith team, that they were able to keep the score down.

The standard of the last two second half performances will need to be maintained to avoid banana skins in tricky away ties at two of the lower clubs over the forthcoming weekends.

KENDAL MAN OF THE MATCH : James Gough