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Kendal Rugby Club, Cumbria

Huddersfield V's KENDAL

Written by craig hine
Thursday, 12 February 2009 23:12
By roving match correspondent, Eileen Dover. I had to travel by my own means to get to this great ground, in the shadow of the giant Lockwood viaduct in Huddersfield. Lovely setting for those who haven’t been.When I got there my ‘agent’, who had come on the bus had, had a ‘request’ from the “El Presidente”, that my match report should be kept to less than 300 words!!……… You are joking!! Thanks for the advice Stalin, but this is the free press and I have a lot to say!!! ‘Agent Johnson’ and I, along with the honourable Steve Dowks esq. decided to “get in among em” (the Huddersfield supporters) and stood slap bang in the middle of them on the banking over-looking the halfway line. The last few season’s fixtures between our two sides have always been very close affairs, but the result has always been in our favour until today. You could sense Hudds were fired up for the encounter and were eager to break their duck against us. Was there a win in the air for them? They thought so.It didn’t take long for them to get stuck into our boys and we were definitely on the back foot from the off. Within 5 minutes we were pushed back to our own line for a defensive 5 metre lineout. The ball was caught and we began to drive forward, only to have the ball wrestled away. Suddenly the Hudds hooker broke free and galloped for the line, throwing an audacious dummy on the way, for good measure. He touched down about 13 metres from the touchline. The tricky kick proved no problem for left wing Matt Johnson and all of a sudden we were 7 – 0 down. We were caught with our pants down, for want of a better expression!!! We hoped it was just a slow start, but if it was, it was going to last a very long time!!Everything we did just seem to gift them the ball. Our game was littered with unforced errors and a lack of accuracy that made us look like a bottom of the table side.There were brief glimmers of something better with the odd run or big tackle, but these were all too easily cancelled out on the negative side by knock-ons, poor attempts at tackles, or being turned over at the breakdown. Surprisingly it took Hudds until the 26th minute to add to their advantage. Another Kendal defensive lineout on our own 10 metre line was tapped back, instead of the usual clean take.Hudds No. 8 Sharpe, burst through the line to clean up the loose ball and charged forward. Parky took the ball-carrier, but the ball had already been shipped out to open-side Hincliffe in support, who cantered in unchallenged to dot down 20 metres from touch. The easy kick was good and Kendal were 14 – 0 down and cruising towards defeat. On 35 mins Kendal broke out of defence and spread the ball wide out to the right in a promising move, only for the ball to be fumbled as the line drew near. Very disappointing. The most surprising thing about this half of rugby was that Hudds never scored more points. They were well on top and our blushes were only saved further by the odd bit of good Kendal defence or their own unforced errors or conceding needless penalties.We couldn’t wait for the sanctuary of the half-time dressing room. They didn’t want the half to finish, but end it did……………… thank God!!! I said to “Red Bob”, Huddersfield’s answer to ‘Robert Redford’!!, during the interval, that the worst thing the Huddersfield coach could say to his players was, “Keep doing what you are doing”, because there was no way Kendal could play that badly again……….ever!(I found out later that, that is exactly what the coach said!!) ‘Red Bob’ and his crusty cohorts were in full flow now, almost goading us about our impending defeat….. in the nicest rugby alikadoo way of course. They had suffered and waited a long time to beat us and today was the day. At this point I reminded him that I wasn’t warbling a tune yet and as we all know “the show isn’t over until the fat lady sings.”We could only hope that this was gonna be a game of two halves, to shut ‘Red Bob’ and his crew up if nothing else!!! 40 minutes would give us the answer. We kicked off to the right and Billy Coxon lead by example, fielding the loose ball that the Hudds forwards had failed to take in.It’s a great sight to see big forwards on the hoof and when he was joined in the assault by the gruesome-twosome, second row partnership of Messrs Gore and Hayton it put our backs first half handling to shame somewhat. Great inter-passing between the trio brought us close to the line in front of the posts, before the move was slowed to a ruck. Goffy then spun the ball back to the right for more good handling, before it eventually arrived at Zane Butler who was free to bash his way over in the corner. We were back in business and we had only used a minute of the half to get there. The conversion from way out on the touchline was wide, but all of a sudden there was a spring in the Cumbrians’ step. 14 – 5.I don’t know what fuel he used, but Bully’s half-time rocket certainly made an impression on the team. We weren’t going to give up this winning record against Hudds that easily. It was game on and everyone on our bank knew it. Kendal’s confidence grew, but was pegged on five minutes when Kendal No.8 Craig Wilson was pinged for failing to release. The kick was wide, but the lesson was learned. Don’t get isolated. Parky made a great catch from an up and under after 8 minutes. He then proceeded to dummy his way, away from three would be tacklers, then chipped the defensive line for the chase, only to be taken out very late by Hudds scrum half Clayton. He was rewarded with a yellow for his party piece, cheap shot and off he plodded like a naughty school boy.Dan made no mistake with the penalty and our tails were up now. As if to balance the “scales of pain”, Captain Voots made a bone-crunching hit, within 2 minutes of the cheap shot, on the Hudds 13 (unlucky for some …… especially him!!), that stopped him in his tracks…….It was one of those “welcome to next week” type hits, where everyone in the crowd winces, pulls a face and feels pity for the poor unfortunate on the end of it! (I checked the aforementioned scales and true enough they were balanced!!) Just as the sin bin clock ran down to it’s end, Kendal launched an attack beginning by winning their own lineout on the halfway on the right side. The ball was then quickly spun along the backline to speedster Lewis Boyd. This was Huddersfield’s first look at him and I’d imagine they won’t want to see too much more of him. He out-gassed the cover, before cutting back inside the fullback to burn his way to the line and touch down. Dan converted to take us into a narrow lead. 14-15.You could see in their eyes that ‘Red Bob’ and his crew knew they were on the rack and it “all went quiet over there”!! Kendal began to assert their authority now and bish, bosh, bashed their way up the field. Hudds gave it everything in defence, but looked as good as we did in the first half. Poor! On 25 minutes Kendal wound up a huge effort down the left side with virtually the whole team joining in. As we battered away at the line on the left, the whole crowd could see the massive three man overlap on the right. Spread it right and it was a certain try. The pass never came, as we persisted on the left.Rob Aloe tried his luck, trying to ferret his way over but was denied at the last, but he did have enough time to offload to Kendal try machine, Richard Harriman to ram his way through the crowd to score in the corner. The conversion was missed from near touch, but 6 points up is on the way to a good lead, especially given the close-scoring history of this fixture. With 10 mins to go, Hudds were getting more desperate and were penalised for hands in at a ruck on their own 22.Dan hit the nail in the coffin and it was 14-23. Awesome. Into the last 2 minutes and it looked to be all over bar the shouting, but then G.G. was found guilty of not releasing in the tackle. (Retract my earlier statement about “lesson learned”!!)Johnson made no mistake with the kick, so Hudds had earned at least a bonus point by being within 7 points, with still a minute to go. Did they have time to win it? No! In the last minute an unruly Hudds forward was disciplined for exactly the same rule-breaking antic that GG had just been done for!! Thanks for that. Dan put the body back in the coffin and nailed it firmly shut, robbing Hudds of their bonus point and the game. 17-26. The Hudds restart was gathered and booted off the park by Goffy, to the sound of the final whistle. The ‘show’ was now over, so my friends and I gave a rendition of “Kendal’s Coming up the hill” as Kendal side headed for the dressing rooms. ‘Red Bob’ was sad, especially as the loser had agreed to buy a round of ‘sherrys’. Eileens two top tipsTop tip No.1 today is; for Gods sake don’t put us through a Huddersfield first half performance ever again!!My second top tip for the boys is, "Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." Never really applied to me that one, but perhaps the team will find it useful.Chin chin. By Eileen Dover Roving match correspondent ……………….. and grandma P.S. Only 1717 words. Sorry.
Last Updated ( Sunday, 02 August 2009 10:16 )