Kendal 34 - 3 Vale of Lune

KENDAL's director of rugby Steve Whitehead praised the flexibility of his side after mauling Vale of Lune on Saturday.

Following their narrow season-opening win at Leigh, Kendal were comfortable winners in the first local derby of the campaign after making thirteen personnel and positional changes.

Matty Houghton secured the bonus point win in the second half as the Shap Road club's defence kept Vale scoreless until the dying embers of the game.

"After last week I said were just a week away from fine tuning," said Whitehead. "We had a great week with the coaching staff and the players worked hard on logistics, timing and preparation and also stepped up the aggression level. I don't think we came second in any area. The important thing now is to keep that consistency rather than peak and trough.

"We have got a greater strength in depth than we have had. Some of the changes were positional changes and when you've got a good squad you pick a side according to the opposition. We know Vale quite well so made sure we had people in the right places to cause them trouble and combat their strengths.

"We were ferocious in defence and had a big appetite for turning defence into attack. Vale weren't allow to play their game, we didn't give them a platform to do it."

Of the thirteen changes, nine were positional and debuts were handed to centre Damian Armstrong and experienced second row Phil Murphy.

Kendal started the game well and took an early lead after five minutes.

Murphy managed to steal a throw and the ball was moved into midfield, and after the forwards put together a number of phases of play, they finally drove over in the left hand corner, with captain Duncan Green coming up with the goods.

With Chris Park starting on the bench, Glenn Weightman took on the kicking duties and put over an excellent conversion.

Kendal continued to attack and doubled their lead five minutes later.

Murphy took the lineout ball after Kendal had been awarded a penalty. The forwards set up a drive from the lineout and Garry Holmes broke away. When the ball came back, Josh Chaplow made a good break through the defence, but was stopped close to the line.

The ball was moved quickly to the backs, and a long pass put Zane Butler over in the left corner. Weightman again put over the difficult conversion.

After twenty five minutes Weightman extended the lead with a penalty and with the final kick of the half added a second to give Kendal a 20-0 half time lead.

The Vale coaching team, had clearly motivated their team during the break, as they came out on the attack, but Kendal weathered the storm and extended the lead further when centre Danny Barker broke a tackle in midfield to power through for a try, with Weightman adding the extras.

Kendal's bonus point try arrived on 65 minutes through flanker Houghton before Weightman added the conversion - his sixth successful kick at goal.

Vale finished the game on the attack, but found no way through the Kendal defence before finally in the seventh minute of added time, Dan Dorrington opened their scoring with a penalty, with the final kick of the game.

Kendal travel to newly-promoted Rochdale on Saturday and Whitehead expects a tough match.

"They are not a side we have played again and again but we have got to be wary of our own strengths and we should be ok.

"The first few games when you come into a new league you are in a winning habit and will be confident on the ball. When you are successful like that you pull together and it will take a bit of breaking down.

"They had a good opening win then Penrith put them to the sword this week. Vale beat Penrith and we pumped Vale but it doesn't work like that for week to week, it goes from opposition to opposition."

Team v Vale of Lune: Duncan Green, Garry Holmes, Liam Hayton, James Thompson, Phil Murphy, Josh Chaplow, Matty Houghton, Chris Downham, James Gough, Glenn Weightman, Dini Noyo, Danny Barker, Damian Armstrong, Mark Carruthers, Zane Butler. Subs: Chris Park, Ben Leacock, Richard Harryman