Kendal15 (5) v Harrogate 21 (21)

21stApril 2012

With Kendal already relegated, their final home match of the campaign, had more significance for their visitors, Harrogate, who sat just outside the drop zone, and needed maximum points intheir quest to retain National League 2 status.

The game started badly for Kendal, as they went down to fourteen men from the kick off with flanker, Ben Craghill, being yellow carded for a high tackle. However this did not seem to effected their play, and they had an even share of the opening exchanges, with both teams demonstrating reasons for their lowly league status, with mistakes ending promising moves.

Harrogate flanker James Tyson opened the scoring after fifteen minutes, when poor Kendal tackling allowed him to make a break through the centre for a try, which was converted by right wing, Jack Latus. 0v7

The Harrogate team was now well into their stride and Kendal saw very little of the ball. A good break down the left wing by hooker, Aarin Yorke, was just ended on the line, and he had to leave the field with an injury. The run had however set up a position in the Kendal twenty two, and from a break from the scrum, a short pass found outside half, Dickie Davies, who powered over for the second score, which Latus again converted.0v14

With half an hour gone more poor tackling allowed Tyson in for his second try, with him stretching over to ground the ball, when held close to the line. Latus converted 0v21.

Kendal finally started to gain more ball and came back into the match. However too often the forwards took the ballthrough a set of moves too many, and the ball was either lost or stolen.

An excellent break by fullback, Simon Mulholland, came to nothing, when there was an opportunity to feed wing Kris Bratten in more space.

Five minutes into injury time, Kendal finally were rewarded with a score, with two pieces of skill from centre Dave Barton. First, he intercepted a Harrogate pass, then after the ball was taken on by outside half Mark Ireland, he was again on hand to put a chip through to the try line, where Harrogate defenders fumbled the ball and Kris Bratten was on hand to score, for a half time score of 5v21.

Kendal came out for the second half a different team and dominated the game, but too often approach play was slow,with the forwards keeping the ball tight, when better opportunities may have lain out wide with the backs.

Finally after fifteen minutes the forwards drove over for a try by Liam Hayton, to narrow the gap to 12v21 with a successful conversion from Mark Ireland.

Kendal had a let off when, with about Harrogate’s only real attack of the half, replacement outside half Callum Irvine broke through, but his pass was fumbled by wing Jack Latus.

After more Kendal pressure, having earlier missed a long range penalty, Mark Ireland was successful with a drop goal to bring Kendal within 6 points of the lead at 15v21 with ten minutes to play.

Kendal looked for the winning score,but were again reluctant to give the ball to the backs. An opportunity for a score seemed possible when a penalty into the twenty two set up an attacking line out, but the referee spotted obstruction and Kendal’s last chance was gone. Harrogate ran the clock down, then were happy to just kick the ball dead intotouch, to take the win, rather than look for the fourth try, which would have given them an extra bonus point.

Good second half performances from replacements Danny Redhead and Alistair Thompson, showed promise for next season, but yet again poor tackling, and a failure to give quick procession to their wings, cost Kendal agame, that was certainly within their grasp.

Mark Hodgkiss

Kendal

15 Simon Mulholland

14 Leo Mercer

13 Ian Voortman [rep Alistair Thompson]

12 Dave Barton

11 Kris Bratten

10 Mark Ireland

9 Andrew Boardley [rep : Jamie Postlethwaite]

1 Richard Harryman

2 Duncan Green

3 Craig Rumney [rep : Billy Coxon]

4 Liam Hayton

5 Reece Tomlinson [rep : Danny Readhead]

6 Garry Holmes

7 Ben Craghill

8 Joe Ellis [rep MattieHoughton]

Harrogate

15 Ed Smithies

14 Jack Latus

13 Sam Bottomley

12 Kyle Dench

11 Luke Edwards

10 Dickie Davies [rep : Callum Irvine]

9 Bill Wickham

1 Jimmy Browne

2 Aarin Yorke [rep : Nico Nyemba]

3 Andy Fraser [rep : Jack Berganas]

4 Tom Harvey

5 Sam Brady [rep : Jacob Brady]

6 Tim Heaton

7 James Tyson

8 Ryan Peacey [rep : HarryHannan]

Referee : Brendan Fitzmaurice