Hayton's View - Coaches read script right for us (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Hayton's View - Coaches read script right for us

11:49am Saturday 25th October 2008 in Sport By Gazette Sports

THE GAME plan last week was to keep the ball tight early on and not use the wide channels - and it was an excellent call by our coaches Bully and Lebby (Jon Nicholson and Dave Bell).

Halifax, despite their lowly league standing, had been starting their games strongly and we wanted to try to hit them hard without taking too many risks.

But virtually the first time the ball was moved to fly-half Dan Stephens, he tried a dummy and a huge hole opened up in front of him and he went through to score a try.

Immediately after the restart we again put the ball in the Halifax half through our pre-planned strategy to kick for territory and a forward-runner Liam Hayton ran in - putting us two tries to the good in the space of three minutes.

All of a sudden we had our tails up and Halifax heads were down. When Garry Holmes went over a third try that was the signal for us to go on and use our expansive options. And it provided some spectacular play and another insight into the arts of winger Lewis Boyd and the other backs.

Ten tries in all made it a real spectacle for our home supporters, carrying on the good work from the previous week, and it's especially gratifying when you are rewarded with a well-executed plan on the pitch - long may it continue!

It's put us on the road in the next round to Morpeth, and it should make for an interesting trip.

This week will be completely different with the visit of Nuneaton, coached by Mike Umaga, the brother of the ex-New Zeland captain. Their play revolves around their backs. They have a useful pairing at half-back and a winger, Will Cave, who has been scoring a lot of their tries.

In their last league game they beat Macclesfield, the league leaders 41-35. They are in form with four wins in the last month and can scores tries but they can also concede them. It promises to be an exciting prospect, weather permitting.

Kendal has welcomed through a connection with Sergeant Steve Bowman a batch of Fijians from the army, who are back from a tour of Iraq and training and playing with our Second XV. The Fijians are are rugby-mad nation and you can see how much they love the game with the smiles on their faces as they are playing. It's adding an international flavour and I'm sure everyone here will make them feel at home.