Macclesfield 3 v Kendal 2

The first round of the Robinsons Brewery Cup saw Kendal playing an away fixture against Macclesfield. A few returning players meant that Kendal travelled with a good, young, (stand fast Ginner) exciting team and the game plan was devised to take advantage of this, by moving the contact area out wide. Unfortunately, a combination of Kendal’s youthful inexperience and Macclesfield's wily experience meant this didn’t always go to plan and a gritty game ensued for the majority of the first half. Kendal had managed to ease the pressure during this period with a couple of early tries and then a converted try on the stroke of half-time but an improvement was definitely needed for the second period. Kendal’s first try came on 7 minutes following an up and under, Grant Parker took a good catch and made some useful yards before off-loading to Nick Carlton to score out wide with the conversion being missed. The second try came on 15 mins and again came from good forward work supported by the backs after Kirk Chettleburgh drove through the middle and offloaded to Mark Carruthers to again score out wide, with the conversion just missing. Macclesfield got back into the game on 37 minutes when after a 5 metre line out and good recycling one of their forwards forced himself over for an unconverted try. A response was needed by Kendal to take into half time and that’s exactly what they produced; great work by the back row created turnover ball on the half way and some good interplay allowed Mark Carruthers to score under the posts.
Half time 17-5 to Kendal.
Kendal were now starting to realise the strengths of the opposition and eventually stick to the game plan and after 15mins of the second half Macclesfield started to tire, and shortly afterwards on 59mins Kendal scored their fourth try with Kirk Chettleburgh taking advantage of good turnover ball won by Shaun Tipping to hit a big gap and run through under the posts. Some ill discipline and a lack of understanding of the referee’s instructions allowed Macclesfield to make their way to Kendal’s 5 metre line following two long range touch finders from the fly half, and from there they scored an almost identical try to their first which went unconverted. Two tries in 2 mins from the 70th minute highlighted the benefit of tiring the Macclesfield forwards out; the first was a second try for Kirk Chettleburgh after a good break by Dan Shorrock and excellent work at the ruck allowing for quick ball, and then almost immediately after Nick Carlton also got his second try, taking advantage of the tiring defence to hit the line at a great angle and break through for a score out to the right of the posts. Macclesfield finished the game with a try very much in their mould for the entire game, a series of forward drives saw them eventually force over a converted try. After missing with his first two conversions Andrew Boardley got the radar working to knock over all four of the subsequent conversions to give Kendal a slightly flattering if not well deserved 38-17 victory.