Excellent Performance to blow away the Cobwebs

defence, keeping the score down in the second half.

Richard Harryman and Garry Holmes returned to the team, but Dini Noyo, Liam Hayton and Bob Mataia were missing, whilst Alistair Thompson was unavailable, so Jordan Johnson, Leo Mercer and Rob Weightman came in to the team.

Kendal started well playing towards the clubhouse, and into a strong breeze, but had to deal with an early break from Park wing Ade Titiloye, who had caused much of the damage in the away game earlier in the season.

The opening score came in slightly strange circumstances. The referee appeared to stop a Kendal attack for a forward pass, but then awarded Kendal a penalty for an earlier offside. James Gough was quick to react, and caught Park napping, as he took the penalty himself to go over for the try, with Chris Park adding the conversion. 7v0.

Only two minutes later the lead was extended. Nathan Wooff made a break down the left, taken on by Jordan Johnson. When he was stopped James Gough popped the ball up to Dan Greenwood, who powered through a gap in the Park defence, to feed Johnson, who whilst stopped near the line managed to ground the ball. 12v0.

Five minutes later Kendal had their third try. The forwards won the ball at the lineout, and drove to the line, where James Gough spun away to score his second try. 17v0.

On one of their first attacks, Park pulled back three points with a penalty from outside half, Ben Salisbury, after the referee had twice caught Leo Mercer coming up in defence too quickly. 17v3

Despite the wind on their backs, almost all of the play was in the Park half, with Kendal in control in both attack and defence. Dan Greenwood, James Thompson, Rob Wightman and Ben Leacock were all prominent in attack, in support of their more experienced colleagues.

The fourth bonus point try came after twenty five minutes. Again the forwards drove to the line, with Matty Houghton appearing to emerge with the ball. 22v3.

After half an hour, the referee issued a Broughton Park forward with a yellow card. Shortly after James Gough completed his hat trick, breaking away from a scrum for the final score of the half. 27v3.

Kendal looked to have increased their lead, early in the second half when Nathan Wooff made a powerful break to the line, but lost the ball in the tackle.

Whilst Kendal continue to dominate, the Park pack started to compete more aggressively at the breakdown, making it difficult for Kendal to re-establish their dominance of the first half.

After defending for the first fifteen minutes, Park broke away up field but the move came to nothing.

After making no changes for the first hour of the game, Kendal were forced to make a change with Mark Carruthers going off injured to be replaced by Adam Pashley, making his first team debut. He went onto the wing, with Chris Park moving to fullback, and Nathan Wooff into the centre.

Moments later Kendal opened their second half scoring. Having been unable to convert close range pressure into points, from halfway Glenn Weightman scythed through the Park defence to give the scoring pass to Leo Mercer who powered to the line for the score, with Chris Park adding the easy conversion. 34v3.

Kendal took the opportunity to make changes in the pack with Jake Broomhead and Josh Chaplow coming on for Richard Harryman and Matty Houghton, but Houghton returned almost immediately when Dan Greenwood, who had been having an excellent game, was forced off with an injury. Harryman also made a quick return after Garry Holmes was also forced off.

Have been beneficiary for the previous try, Leo Mercer set up Kendal’s final score. He broke through the defence, and found Matty Houghton in support to take the scoring pass, with Chris Park adding the conversion. 41v3.

With five minutes to play, Kendal looked as if they had added an eighth try. Glenn Weightman put an excellently weighted kick to the right wing, for substitute Adam Pashley to gather and cross the line. The referee however called him back, suggesting he had been ahead of Weightman when he put the kick through. This was one of a number of strange calls he made against both teams. Unfortunately, Pashley questioned the decision himself, and was issued with a yellow card ending his involvement in the game.

The final score of the game, was a consolation try for Broughton Park, with speedy right wing Ade Titaloye, breaking from his own half, to score, on his team’s only visit to the Kendal twenty two of the half. The conversion was taken quickly and was missed. 41v8.

This was an excellent way to bounce back after the previous week’s performance, and the coaching team’s words were clearly ringing in a number of players ears, as they stepped up to put in their best performances for some time.

The only concerns were the injures, and the failure to break down the Park defence, without which the winning margin would have been significantly bigger.

Tougher test are to come, starting with the trip to Widnes next weekend, who will be desperate to avenge the bizarre ending to the game at Kendal earlier in the season, but if key players stay fit and the team can maintain this intensity, they can be a match for the difficult challenges to come.

Kendal Man of the Match (as votes for by Website Readers) : James Gough
Winner for a second week running and fifth time this season.
Nine players got at least one vote this week, demonstating the excellent team performance, but leading by example James took by far the largest number of votes.

Referee : Steven Turnbull (Scottish RU)