Disappointment again for Kendal as they meet their Waterloo

Kendal 13

National Division Three North

KENDAL had another disappointing Saturday when their expectations of a revival were dashed with another flawed performance.

The Cumbrians started the game encouragingly, with Dini Nayo making a superb inside break as he cut through to the home 22-metre line, but he was finally grounded by the home cover.

Soon after, Chris Park opened the scoring with a neat penalty goal from 35 metres.

But Waterloo returned to the attack with a penalty kick to the corner. They won the line out and drove over, with Alick Croft getting his hands on the ball to score the five points.

The referee subsequently caught Jason Poleman deliberately offside, and brandished a yellow card. With Kendal a man down, they failed to cope with the missing player for the next 10 minutes.

Tom Holloway, the home scrum half, darted around the blindside of a close-in ruck to score Waterloo's second try after 22 minutes, and Kendal were wobbling.

A few minutes later, Andrew Trotter took advantage of a big overlap on his right wing to stroll over, O'Brien missing the conversion but Waterloo had opened up a 15-3 advantage.

When Poleman returned from the sin bin, matters did not improve as Kendal struggled to clear their lines.

Just before half time Poleman was caught offside again, which resulted in a second yellow card to leave his side down to 14 men for the rest of the game.

O'Brien kicked a penalty before the interval as Waterloo went 18-3 up.

In the second half, with their backs to the wall, Kendal played much better.

A great move in attack by Dan Rayson up the touchline put Nayo through again up the middle. The winger flew through but was tackled superbly by the home full back.

Park added a second penalty to reduce the arraws to 18-6, and then the forwards started to roll forward supporting each other well.

Captain Liam Hayton limped off with a leg injury to add to the Black and Ambers’ injury woes, to be replaced by James Thompson.

Simon Davidson charged down a kick in his own 22 metre area, and dribbled the ball through neatly for 30 metres. As Waterloo finally fielded the ball, returning Mark Bowman followed up well, but was eventually downed.

Waterloo returned to the attack and took advantage of their extra man when Anthony Harvey scored from 10 metres.

The Cumbrians started to counter-attack and with only five minutes to go, Simon Davidson took a quick tap penalty. He moved the ball to his right wing to give Alistair Thompson the space to dash up the touchline to score Kendal's first try of the game, converted by Park.

It had been a long wait but was fully deserved as the gap was narrowed to 23-13.

Just before the final whistle, O'Brien scored a try with a magnificent solo run down the middle. Again the conversion was missed and as the game ended, a battered Kendal limped into the changing rooms to count their damaged limbs and consider their many mistakes on the field.