Rugby - Kendal wow fans in sunshine (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Rugby - Kendal wow fans in sunshine

2:15pm Tuesday 19th April 2011 in Sport

Kendal 42, Harrogate 26.

A SUBLIME spell of handling stood out in Kendal’s five-try defeat of Harrogate at a sunlit Mint Bridge on Saturday.

The Kendal players had that satisfying feeling of wowing the crowd when they took the ball from a scrum just outside their own 22 and produced some top-bracket trailing and inter-passing to work it over the tryline.

It was the sort of stuff that is easy to achieve on the training ground, but rarely comes off in a real match situation.

But is was a measure of how far the developing Kendal have come and how much they deserve their National League status, which is looking safer every match they play.

But there is always room for improvement and Harrogate found a big hole in the home defence after only two minutes to give lock-forward Gareth Lodgean embarrassingly easy run-in.

That sloppy work and a 7-0 deficit was quickly left behind as the powerhouse pack took charge.

After fly-half Mark Ireland rewarded the good possession with a successful penalty, Kendal scored their first try when Ben Robinson broke through and Iain Hudson applied the finish.

Great counter-attacking running from Simon Mulholland and John Ladell soon opened the way for Gareth Gore to feed Liam Hayton to cross for a second and Ireland converted for a 17-7 lead.

Kendal’s defensive drill held off the visitors and and then came an outstanding try with Dan White tearing away from a scrum and forwards and backs intertwining to transfer the ball 50 metres for Duncan Green to touch down.

Harrogate came back and it took a last-ditch tackle by Lowther to deny a try, but after John Ladell was sinbinned the resulting penalty catch-and-drive move brought a score for hooker Aaron Yorke. to make it 25-14 at the break.

After Harrogate fumbled the restart ball, Kendal took a grip and they retained the ball superbly in the forwards for Hayton to add his second try.

Harrogate threw everything bit of ball wide and worked an overlap for Almond to score.

But Ireland - who contributed 17 points on the day - one of four penalties back and Dan Lowther, in off his wing, was gifted an interception try that made it 42-19 with the extras.

A Ryan Pearcey try for Harrogate just before the final whistle could not tkae the gloss of a fine display.

Head coach Jon Nicholson said: “This is a fantastic result for all involved and just reward for the players who have worked exceptionally hard over the past several weeks.

“Leicester will probably be the toughest match of the season so far.

“It’s business as usual for ourselves trying to keep Nuneaton at arm’s length while looking to erase some of the memories from last year’s fixture down there when we were embarrassed.”