Rugby - Rising hopes end on rocks at Hull (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Rugby - Rising hopes end on rocks at Hull

10:55am Thursday 10th March 2011 in Sport

Hull Ionians 42, Kendal 11.

FULL OF confidence after their brilliant victory the week before against high- flying Leicester Lions, Kendal were brought back down to earth with a bump on their trip to Hull Ionians.

A promising counter-attack in the 10th minute was halted by Ionian hands in at the ruck, but Kendal took an early lead when Mark Ireland slotted the penalty.

However, good forward play at the restart from the Ionians pack opened up the Kendal defence for scrum-half Adam Thomas to dart through a large hole beside the ruck close to the Kendal tryline.

Stand-off James Ferguson converted and added a penalty two minutes later to give the home side a 10-3 lead.

Kendal clung on to their foothold in the game and despite Ireland having a rare off day with the boot, he successfully kicked his fourth attempt at goal five minutes before half time to leave Kendal trailing by just four points at the interval.

Kendal secured an excellent restart kick and worked their way downfield.

Unfortunately they turned the ball over for the destructive Ionians centre Oliver Marns to wreak havoc.

He shrugged off three attempted tackles before crashing over in the corner for an unconverted try four minutes into the second half.

Ionians came straight back at Kendal from the restart with Marns breaking through midfield and finding flying winger Mark Duxbury with his long pass for him to cross in the corner. Ferguson missed the conversion but added a penalty to extend their lead to 23-6.

With Kendal falling off far too many tackles and Ionians using Marns as a very effective weapon through midfield, they created a further three tries.

Marns went over himself and there was a brace for right wing Gary Stephenson - one aided by an interception pass as Kendal tried to run their way out of trouble. Ferguson kicked two conversions to give Ionians an unassailable 42-6 lead.

One small consolation came for Kendal at the end of the match when a good counter-attacking run gave replacement wing Leo Mercer just enough space to score his first try for the club.