7:25pm Saturday 25th April 2009
By Gazette Sports
LOUGHBOROUGH Students were too much of a handful for Kendal at Mint Bridge on Saturday, the pacy free-running young visitors inflicting a 29-20 defeat.
Kendal were the slow ones to learn - kicking away far too much possession, which allowed Loughborough the opportunity to stretch their legs.
An unconverted interception try after 13 minutes put the Students in front, but Kendal went 7-5 up after winger Lewis Boyd managed to touch down in the tackle wide out, with Rob Aloe converting.
Aloe then added a penalty to extend the gap to 10-5 but Loughborough came back with the second of five tries as they ran back the restart kick and outpaced the cover defence.
Turning round 10-10 at half time, Kendal paid the price for failing to keep ball to hand at the Students again counter-attacked and followed up a chip through to win turnover ball - a definite strongpoint - to add another five points.
After Kendal worked hard to defend their line, they kicked to touch, but the Students worked an opening from the linout and add a bonus-point try to open a 22-10 lead.
A triple substitution from Kendal brought fresh legs on and was rewarded with a Matt Gracie try after some mazy running from Boyd in midfield. Aloe's conversion hit the post but the gap had narrowed to 22-15.
When the Students had a player sinbinned, Kendal took advantage with a try from Zane Butler and the unconverted effort took Kendla to within two points.
But failure to secure ball at a penalty lineout was punished as the Students sped away for a fifth try, which converted opened the gap to 20-29.
Kendal finished camped on the visitors' tryline but they ran out of time as they tried hard to peg back the two-score deficit.
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