Seven-try spree for Kendal (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Seven-try spree for Kendal

8:43am Friday 10th November 2006 in

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WITH almost cavalier disdain Kendal's backs demolished Westoe, running in seven tries against the side which many had expected to pose a tough threat, writes Dennis Aris.

Westoe came to Mint Bridge with the reputation of having a strong well-organised scrum, but they were more than matched by Kendal's pack, allowing an adventurous attitude in the backs, which thrilled and yet sometimes alarmed the home crowd.

Impossibly long passes, Sevens-style overhead off-loads and incisive bursts, particularly by scrum-half James Gough and full-back Simon Mulholland, eventually left the visitors battered and bemused.

Amazingly, as it had been so different at half-time when the visitors had recovered from the shock of going 15-0 down, to get within a point at 15-14, and looked quite capable of forging ahead in the second period.

Despite giving away half-a-dozen penalties in the opening minutes of the match it was Kendal who struck first, Billy Coxon stealing the ball at the back of the lineout.

Fly-half Massey Tuhak-araina's 20-yard pass to his twin brother Patrick fooled the Westoe cover and John Ladell race in to score in the corner.

The advantage was doubled on 15 minutes. The ball was going right from a maul, but Gough switched it left for Mulholland to swerve between the opposing scrum-half and centre to touch down for another unconverted try.

Mulholland was at the heart of the third score on 20 minutes, bursting into the line and setting off on a long diagonal run before feeding right-winger Luke Ladell for a simple run-in to the corner.

It looked as if the rest of the game would be a breeze, but Westoe's first threequarters attack saw centre Graeme Haswell weave though to the line without a serious attempt to tackle him. To make matters worse Kendal No. 8 Andrew Hudson landed heavily on Haswell long after the touch down and was sin-binned for ten minutes.

John McFarlane kicked the long conversion and Kendal's advantage had been halved. It could have been worse for less than a minute later McFarlane narrowly missed a penalty.

The determination of Kendal's backs to try to make something from every scrap of possession came unstuck on 30 minutes when, from his own 22, Massey Tuhakaraina chipped the ball forward for Luke Ladell to chase.

The Kendal winger is very quick, but Westoe full back Vick Anton was nearer. He gathered the ball and ran it all the way back to make the score 15-12, McFarlane adding the two points to bring Westoe all but level at half-time.

As the second half opened Westoe tried to stifle Kendal's over use of the long pass by with extra cover wide out, but Kendal's next score came from the forwards.

Mike Capstick charged down an attempted clearance kick and sprinted 10 yards to dive on the loose ball. Patrick Tuhakaraina put over a good conversion for his first points of the afternoon.

Westoe's next attempted clearance saw Mulholland gather the long kick before setting up a classic down the line try, the ball moving via the Tuhakaraina twins for Luke Ladell to race round his opposite number and go over near the posts giving Patrick Tuhakaraina an easy conversion for 29-14.

Westoe fell further behind when Luke Ladell beat four players, before he heaved the ball over his head as he was tackled. Up steamed Mul-holland to take the pass for a try converted by Patrick Tuhakaraina for 35-14 The final action of the match saw another magnificent running sequence to put Luke Ladell in at the corner. He was bounced by Westoe winger Paul Alexander well after the touchdown, retaliated and in the ensuing scuffle John Ladell provided brotherly aid, the referee yellow-carded all three of them.