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Kendal 5 (5) v Otley 11 (5)
Saturday 21st January 2012
report by Mark Hodgkiss
With only bonus points separating the three teams at the bottom of the table, Kendal hosted Otley in a must win game for both teams.
Chris Park returned at outside half for Kendal, but centre Dave Barton dropped out to be replaced by Steffan Thomas.
Kendal started attacking the clubhouse end, and despite playing into a very strong wind, dominated the early exchanges. After a string of penalties put them into the Otley twenty two, they tested a resolute Otley defence, which held firm until flanker Daniel Temm was yellow carded by referee Matt Daubney. Kendal continued to attack the Otley line and finally Billy Coxon weaved his way over for an unconverted try. 5v0.
Despite playing into the wind, Kendal continued to dominate position, playing a simple game of retaining the ball and stretching the Otley defence, which continued to hold firm.
A kick and excellent chase by wing Kris Bratton, saw Otley forced into conceding a line out in their twenty two, but, in difficult windy conditions, the put in was adjudged to have been not straight.
After spending almost all of the first half in their own half, in injury time Otley broke out and some weak tackling in mid-field allowed a break into the twenty two, where the Kendal defence ran out of numbers, to allow hooker Tim Mobbs in for a try, but the conversion was missed to keep scores even. 5v5
Otley then had a chance to take an unlikely half time lead, when again good running in mid-field broke the Kendal defence, but this time players got back to end the attack, but the Kendal coaches would have been very disappointed to see their team come in only on level terms after so much dominance.
Otley came out the stronger in the second half, and in almost a mirror image of the opening of the first half, Kendal gave away penalties to allow Otley to attack their line, and when a penalty was conceded in front of the posts, despite the wind, Otley fullback Ben Collins converted it 5v8.
Otley continued to dominate, and the loss of flanker Garry Holmes at half time and hooker Duncan Green early in the half, seemed to disrupted the pattern of play Kendal demonstrated in the first half
When prop Billy Coxon was yellow carded after ten minutes, Collins put over a second penalty, helped by a drop in the strength of the wind. 5v11.
Despite being reduced to fourteen men, Kendal then had their best spell of play of the half, with the forwards starting to dominate again. A clever kick to the corner seemed to have set up an opening for a try, but the final pass was knocked on and Otley cleared.
Otley grew in confidence as the half progressed, and regularly found gaps in the recently watertight Kendal defence, but could not find a further score. Kendal failed to find a way to batter through the Otley defence, and lack of a “plan B” when this failed, meant they rarely threatened the Otley line.
With ten minutes to go Glenn Chesher, became the second Kendal player to receive a yellow card, and whilst the Kendal defence held out, they were penned deep in their own half as time ran out.
The Otley team and supporters justifiably celebrated a hard earned first away win of the season, but on the basis of this performance, both teams will struggle to pull away from the relegation zone.
With Hull Ionians winning narrowly at Leicester Lions, Kendal drop to the foot of the table, on a day all the teams at the bottom picked up points.
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Kendal
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Otley
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15
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Andrew Boardley
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15
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Ben Collins
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21
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Kris Bratton
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14
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James Twomey
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13
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Leo Mercer
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13
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Tom Harris
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12
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Staffan Thomas
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12
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Nick Coupland
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11
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Ian Voortman
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11
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Curtis Wilson
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10
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Chris Park
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[21]
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10
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Tom Rock
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9
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Simon Davidson
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9
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James Munro
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1
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Richard Harriman
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1
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George Burkinshaw
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2
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Duncan Green
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[16]
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2
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Tim Mobbs
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3
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Billy Coxon
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3
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Adam Blades (C)
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4
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Liam Hayton [C]
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4
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Simon Willet
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5
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Reece Tomlinson
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[19]
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5
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Andrew Fradgley
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6
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Garry Holmes
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[18]
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6
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Toby Williams
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7
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Jo Mallinson
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7
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Daniel Temm
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8
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Jo Ellis
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8
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Tom O’Donnell
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16
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Glenn Chesher
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16
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Jonathan McMillian
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17
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Craig Rumney
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17
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Ben Steele
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18
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Tom Voke
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18
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A Bradley
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19
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Daniel Redhead
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19
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Luke Watts
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21
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Jamie Postlethwaite
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20
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James Woods
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