Bradford & Bingley 21

Kendal 10

National Division Three North

KENDAL’S long losing run in away matches continued when the Black and Ambers wilted in the final quarter against Bradford and Bingley.

But it was a different story at the beginning of the game as the Cumbrians came flying out of the blocks, scoring two tries in the first 10 minutes.

A yellow card was issued to Bradford’s Ryan Wederell after only four minutes for pulling down at a ruck, and the Black and Ambers pack immediately took advantage to drive over the line with Garry Holmes getting his hands on the ball to score.

Chris Park's conversion attempt was blown wide by the wintry east wind.

Kendal did not let up, winning a lot of ball in the line outs with Dan White and Reece Tomlinson dominant.

The scrums were also strong, and Jason Poleman started a superb move going left from halfway. Dini Nayo made a great cut through to feed his full back, Dan Lowther, who charged over for the second try. Park again missed the conversion, but Kendal were 10 points up.

Even using the wind, Richard Scull, the scrum half for the West Yorkshire side, missed two kickable penalties but the Wagon Lane side fought back, led by their captain and back rower Guy Ford. He set a fine example with a great charge down his left wing and after scattering some weak tackling, he stormed over for Bradford’s first try.

Scull again missed the conversion, but he did kick a penalty just before the break to reduce Kendal’s advantage to 10-8 at half time.

Kendal missed Dan White at the back of the line out in the second half after he was taken off injured during the interval, but the Black and Ambers were still scrummaging well, and a good driving maul took them over the tryline, but the score was disallowed for accidental offside.

Bradford took a small lead when Scull kicked another penalty, and the home side started to win more ball and counter attack.

One move down the left wing was only stopped when Simon Davidson came flying across to make a superb tackle into touch.

Kendal were forced to reshuffle their front row when Richard Harryman had to leave the field on the hour mark and the Cumbrians missed his bulk in the set pieces in the last quarter, often being pushed off the ball by the sturdy Bradford pack.

The Yorkshire lads immediately drove through the lineout, and Ford scored his second try to give Bradford a 16-10 lead.

The final nail in the coffin came when their big right winger James Morton made amends for a first half dropped pass on Kendal's tryline. He burst through some poor tackling on halfway, and made a superb diagonal run to the corner to score a fine individual try with 15 minutes remaining.

The depleted Kendal stuck to their guns, and even though they did not win a lot of ball ithey almost got back into the game with a couple of chances.

But it proved to no avail and the Black and Ambers go into a crunch Cumbrian derby against Penrith on Saturday desperately needing a win.

Bradford and Bingley

Moss, Brown, Wederell, Malthouse, B Mitchell, Ford, Fisher, Cookson, Scull, Brimacombe, Robinson, Bills, Tafa, Morton, Greaves.

Replacements: Peglau, M Mitchell, Jeffery

Kendal

Alistair Livesey, Duncan Green, Richard Harryman, Liam Hayton, Reece Tomlinson, Ken Houghton, Garry Holmes, Dan White, Simon Davidson, Chris Park, Jamie Postlethwaite, Jason Poleman, Dini Nayo, Adam Jackson, Dan Lowther.

Replacements: Ben Leacock, Dan Greenwood, Peter Redhead.