Kirkby Lonsdale 29 - 0 Widnes
KIRKBY Lonsdale remain hot on the heels of league leaders Birkenhead Park after an all round dominating display saw them exact revenge on Widnes at Underley Park.
The Cumbrians lost 36-15 at Widnes in September but showed no signs of a repeat result as they cruised to victory in the first game back after the Christmas period.
Recent heavy rain had made the playing surface at Underley Park a little slippery but it was an excellent all round team performance by Kirkby that put the skids under Widnes, who started the fixture just two points behind their opponents.
Kirkby immediately went on the attack from the off and caught the visitors offside in a kickable position - but the kick slid by the posts.
Widnes took play to Kirkby's twenty two but couldn’t penetrate and excellent individual skills from winger David Bird and scrum half Ben Walker soon saw Kirkby back in the ascendency.
Pressure on the Widnes line was immense with Kirkby inches from scoring.
A drive from a five metre scrum was deemed held up but there was no respite for Widnes and following a couple of resets the referee awarded a penalty try and it was 7-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Six minutes later and it was 17-0 thanks to tries from Jack Akrigg and Bird, both of which were unconverted.
Widnes did have points scoring opportunities from penalties in kickable range but opted to keep the ball in hand with taps and as half-time approached there was never any real threat to the Kirkby line. Kirkby came closest to scoring next when Harry Ralston broke out of his own twenty two only to be bundled into touch by the Widnes corner flag - signalling the half time whistle.
Any hopes Widnes might have had were soon dispelled when from their kick off the home side pinned the visitors in their twenty two for the first ten minutes.
Kirkby were still dominant in the set scrum and full back Chad Spence went close by the posts, before he was given a straight yellow.
Down to fourteen men, Kirkby’s response was to score their fourth and bonus point try when the forwards drove over to allow Australian second row forward Nick Edney to touch the ball down.
Tom Pickthall’s conversion extended the lead to 24-0 before Sam Cairns was then sent to the touchline. But the numerical disadvantage did not affect Kirkby.
Stand off Dave Barton was running in possession when scrum half Walker saw an opportunity and called for Barton to chip into space.
There was cover but, under pressure from Walker, the defender over-ran the ball as he went to ground and, gathering cleanly at pace, the scrum-half sprinted for the line and dove in at the corner for Kirkby’s fifth try.
Pickthall’s conversion was well struck but just wide and with ten minutes to play it was game over at 29-0.
Kirkby number eight Craig Galbraith picked up the man-of-the-match award.
Team
1 Pablo Kwiczor
2 Dan Armistead
3 Tim Groves
4 Matt Hughes ©
5 Nick Edney
6 David Cooper-Dunne
7 Stuart Storey
8 Craig Galbraith
9 Ben Walker
10 Dave Barton
11 David Bird
12 Jack Akrigg
13 Tom Pickthall
14 Martyn Knapton
15 Chad Spence
Bench
Jonas Thorsen
Harry Ralston
Sam Cairns
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