Rugby - Unbeaten run ends (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Rugby - Unbeaten run ends

4:00pm Monday 22nd September 2008 in Sport By Gazette Sports

KIWI Zane Butler get a chance on the wing for the National League 3 North home match against Bradford and Bingley at Mint Bridge tomorrow (Saturday).

Butler switches from the centre to replace Chris Park, who is suffering from a knee injury sustained in training last Thursday week. Brett Ashley returns in the centre against skipper Ian Voortman. Park started in the 28-13 defeat at Hull Ionians but came off at half time.

Hull Ionians......................... 28

Kendal................................. 13.

KENDAL'S memorable 25-match winning sequence in league rugby came to an end away at Hull Ionians on Saturday.

On the back of an excellent performance against Darlington Morden Park the previous week, Kendal simply could not reproduce that same level of performance and skill.

The visitors trailed from the start when they offended at the kick-off receipt and left wing Nick Cooper kicked the three points for Hull.

However, from a very promising attack down the right touchline Kendal forced a 19th-minute penalty when Hull were caught offside. Fly-half Dan Stephens made no mistake with his attempt at goal to level the scores.

The scores remained 3-3 until six minutes before half time with both sides struggling with the referee's strict interpretation of the new experimental law variations.

It produced a disjointed first half with Kendal seemingly unable to play with any sort of structure or pattern.

A tardy Kendal lineout on their own five-metre line gifted Richard Wigham a try after he stripped Kendal of possession on their own tryline as they scrambled to clean up a poor tap down.

Cooper converted and added a second penalty to the scoreline coming up to half time.

However, during first-half injury time Kendal were firstly awarded a penalty, which Stephens put over after centre Travis Plumridge was yellow carded for diving in at a ruck. Then a minute later Kendal winger Lewis Boyd pounced on the loose ball from a wild Hull pass on the edge of their own 22 and raced in unopposed beneath the posts for a try, which Stephens also converted to level the scores at 13-13 at the break.

Early in the second half Cooper struck the upright with a simple penalty kick at goal for Hull after centre Zane Butler had shown the yellow card for killing the ball in the tackle. But the home team did score moments later when Kendal fumbled lineout possession close to their own tryline.

Hull fully capitalised by placing a neat grubber kick through the defence which right wing Gary Stephenson collected to score Hull's second try, with Cooper adding the extras from the touchline.

Awful positional kicking, an unwanted feature of Kendal's play throughout, handed Hull excellent possession in the 51st minute and they punished the visitors by scoring a third try when they put centre Plumridge into space to score wide out.

Cooper slotted over a third penalty in the 61st minute to complete the scoring, despite Kendal being camped on the Hull tryline in the final quarter of the game with a series of five-metre scrums from which they failed to score.