Battling Performance

Kendal came into the game with five losses in a row, whilst League leaders Macclesfield had only lost once all season, plus one draw, both to second placed Rossendale. Win their last two games both against Cumbrian opposition and they would be moving up next season.

No Reece Tomlinson or Leo Mercer (both were at the game), so Ben Leacock came off the bench, and Dan Shorrock, who had missed the Penrith game, came in on the wing, with Naki Saumaki moving into the centre.

Macclesfield had the better of the early play, but it was Kendal who took the lead after five minutes. What appeared to be a poor kick out of defence went straight to Macclesfield right wing Sam Adu, but he fumbled the ball to give Kendal a scrum. Kendal No.8 Steven Nelson picked up, and with Dan Shorrock on his shoulder powered down the touchline for the opening score. Aaron Stephens added the difficult conversion from near the right touchline. 7v0

Macclesfield quickly hit back. They were awarded a penalty and put the kick to touch and won the lineout, and moved the ball fast across the field from right to left for a score by wing Sam Adu, making up for his earlier mistake. The both touch judges seemed to have decided the difficult conversion had failed, only for it to hit the upright and bounce over. 7v7

The expected avalanche of points did not follow. Macclesfield moved the ball well at pace, but there were a number of handling errors, not all penalised, including one where the referee seemed to penalise the Kendal bench for appealing for a knock on, whilst he felt the ball went back. The Kendal defence however rarely looked in trouble.

Kendal had clearly spotted wing Sam Adu, whilst a flyer with the ball in hand, was not so good taking kicks, and seemed to target him with some success.

Kendal re-took the lead after half an hour with an Aaron Stephens penalty. 10v7.

At this point Kendal brought Joe Anderson off the bench for his twentieth appearance of the season, with Barney Coxon coming off. This however seemed to benefit Macclesfield who had one very tall prop, like Coxon, and shortly afterwards they won several scrum penalties (still don’t understand when a player is clearly been driven upwards, why it is not the player doing the driving penalised ?).

There was a chance for Kendal when Devin Coyle made a break down the left wing, fullback Mckenzie Cousins was in support, but Macclesfield players were positioned to prevent the pass, so instead Coyle kicked ahead only for the ball ricocheted off Macclesfield outside half Tom Morton to touch.

From the lineout the Kendal pack drove for the line, but were held up short. Steven Nelson broke away, but lost the ball as he attempted to get it down, when tackled just short.

Kendal made a second change with Tommy Calvert, getting a first appearance of the season in place of Mckenzie Cousins.

There was another chance for Kendal in added time. Alistair Thompson made a good break from inside his own half, then Dan Shorrock took the ball on and made ground, before being stopped just short by Macclesfield outside half, Tom Morton, who had been his team’s best player. Shorrock lost the ball in the tackle, and the chance was gone

Kendal still took a narrow lead into half time and whilst they probably had had less of the ball, they had also had the better scoring chances, and the large Macclesfield support was clearly a little nervous.

Like in the first half, Macclesfield and the referee kept Kendal waiting for the restart.

Macclesfield made the better start to the half, and there was an early double blow for Kendal, with replacement fullback Tommy Calvert yellow carded near his own line, whilst strong tackling centre Luke Atkinson was force off with what appeared to be an arm or shoulder injury, to be replaced by Mckenzie Cousins.

The break though for Macclesfield came shortly afterwards, with a try from short range, to take the lead for the first time. 10v14.

A second try was added shortly afterwards. There was what appeared a good kick out of defence from Kendal, but Macclesfield centre Terrance Barbarinsa did very well to collect it which set off a run which resulted in the try. 10v19

Kendal made further changes with Greg Wrathall replacing Dane Blenkharn, and Barney Coxon returning for Joe Anderson.

A third try came ten minutes later. What appeared to be another good Kendal kick was instead run back, with the player who collected the ball, easily outwitting the Kendal defence to set up the attack. 10v26

Five minutes later a further try followed, following a good passing move 10v31

The next try followed Kendal managing to hold up Macclesfield players near the line to win a scrum, but the ball was lost, to give Macclesfield a scrum and their stronger pack drove over. 10v38

Kendal rallied and played their best rugby of the second half in the last ten minutes, but despite some good handling were no match for the Macclesfield defence, and it was Macclesfield who added a final try, following a burst through the centre.

Despite the final scoreline, a much improved performance from Kendal. However, not for the first time (see the programme if you got one, as they had run out by the time I arrived !) “why can they always seem to raise their game against the top clubs, but struggle against the minnows”

Well as they played Macclesfield, certainly did not look the team with their record, but clearly resilience under pressure may be the key, and whilst Penrith will give them a good game next weekend, Macclesfield will be out to celebrate promotion in style.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Matt Houghton

TEAMS

ACTION

OTHER GAMES

So whilst the result at Mint Bridge did not go our way (not totally unexpected) results elsewhere mean we stay in sixth for the moment and Penrith will need a double bonus point (or a win !) against Macclesfield in a fortnight to catch us. We play Stockport so whoever wins will be sixth.

TABLE

The big win for Leek means Sandbach, along with Northwich go down, whatever happens in the Sandbach v Leek game in a fortnight.

At the start of the season Leek (along with Penrith and Anselmians) as promoted teams would have been expected to struggle, Northwich only survived two years ago due to the restructure and last year due to their recruitment from overseas, but Sandbach would have been expected to be challenging at the top