Rugby - Huge Hull pound their way to four-try revenge

8:26pm Saturday 6th March 2010

By Richard Daniels

A STRENGTHENED Hull turned round an earlier 28-8 defeat this season into an almost mirror-image 25-7 victory over Kendal at Mint Bridge on Saturday.

Poundage counted on the day with Hull looking a stone or two heavier per man - it seemed that way anyway - and their size and strength was a telling factor.

Kendal struggled to make anything from their hard-won possession in the first half against a side eager to feed off their powerful set of ball-winning forwards.

After an early Kendal break by Gary Hodgson came to nothing, Hull had the ball returned to them courtesy of a knock-on and made it look deceptively easy to score as flanker Sione Omesi battered his way past an attempted tackler.

Kendal won two or three good turnovers but struggled to turn them to advantage, with fly-half Mike Scott's kick through for Chris Park to chase running dead.

After Hodgson again carried the ball well another knock-on, as the big hits in contact rained in, stopped the promising momentum.

Kendal held up Hull over the tryline after they had aloofly spurned a penalty kick at goal to go for the corner instead.

When play switched to the other end after second-row Craig Wilson made an important steal in midfield, Hull's awesome easily pack shoved Kendal off their five-metre scrummage ball - it left the home crowd unusually silent.

Instead a second try arrived for Hull in the 27rd minute as No. 8 Robert Devonshire peeled off a scrummage and dived over with centre James Cameron adding the conversion for a 12-0 lead.

A third try came before half time as Hull mauled their way over from a penalty lineout with Devonshire again getting the touchdown for a 17-0 half-time lead.

A Cameron penalty after the break extended that to 20-0, and although Kendal had more territory in the second half but the unforced errors continued to dog their attempts to prise an opening.

Livewire scrum-half James Gough never stopped trying in attack or defence and finally eluded the spoiling Hull defence for a belated 72nd-minute try, which Ireland converted.

Hull had been restricted to just one more dubious try - for their bonus point - eight minutes into the half when lock Daniel Cook seemed to ground the ball short of the line, but the referee awarded the score -and the crowd was at its loudest during the afternoon to roundly boo him for doing so.

Hull - only two points to the good over Kendal in the league table at the start of play having played two games more - blatantly disrupted Kendal's ruck ball and ended the match with 13 men after being shown two yellow cards in the last ten minutes, but the damage had been done a long time ago.

It was good to see Kendal get on the scoreboard, but their attacking options look worringly blunted and the home fans might get restless if another display like this passes the censor.