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RUGBY LIONS 25 – KENDAL 11 Kendal made the long journey down the M6, to play Rugby Lions, and after the lengthy enforced layoff due to the wintry weather were caught cold by Rugby Lions in the opening quarter of the game.
Rugby scored their first points of the game through a well struck drop-goal taken by centre Jack Green. Rugby’s first try came three minutes later, a super flowing move involving several players was finished off by second row forward Liam Munro who crashed over from close range for the score, which was converted by fullback Lloyd Warner. Rugby’s second try was all about pace and precision. Warner joined the back line at speed and his pass to winger Joseph Marston gave him just enough room to sprint in at the corner. The try was excellently converted from close to the touchline by Warner to give the home side a 17 – 0 lead after twenty-three minutes. Kendal's first foray into the Rugby twenty-two so nearly produced their first score of the afternoon in the twenty-eighth minute. Kendal, through good driving play, earned themselves a 5-metre scrum, good ball was won, and they then ran a lovely backs move that baffled the home defence. Unfortunately, the final pass was put down with the line beckoning. But Kendal stuck at the task in hand and, from a rampaging run by flanker Gary Hodgson, were rewarded with a penalty kick at goal, which fullback Mark Ireland made no mistake with. Ireland kicked a second penalty two minutes later when Rugby No.8 Alex Nash was shown a yellow card for deliberately killing the ball. However on the stroke of half time Kendal conceded a silly penalty which Warner kicked to make the half-time score 20 – 6. Kendal started the second half very well and were just millimetres away from scoring their second try in the fifth minute. The ball was moved swiftly down the left flank, and a neat chip was put through for winger Chris Park to chase, and it looked for all the world as though he was going to get the touch down, until, at the very last second a Rugby defender slid in to kick the ball away and clear the immediate danger. Kendal kept the pressure on the home side and, with a couple of superb passes, Kendal were able to put second row Gareth Gore in for the try. Unfortunately the difficult conversion was missed but nonetheless Kendal were back in the game at 20 - 11. However despite Kendal’s dominance in the third quarter of the game they could not add to their tally and, with their only visit of the second half into the Kendal twenty-two, Rugby scored their third try in the sixty-seventh minute to complete the scoring. |
