Kendal 39 - 14 Vale of Lune

TABLE-topping Kendal twice fought back from losing positions as they returned to winning ways in a hard-fought victory over Vale of Lune at Mint Bridge.

Kendal lost their unbeaten record in a narrow defeat at Carlisle last week but produced a storming second-half performance to get back on the winning trail on Saturday afternoon.

Vale twice took the lead in the first-half but Kendal took a 15-14 lead in at the break. The league leaders went on to score a flurry of tries as they racked up 24 points in the final forty minutes.

Skipper James Gough, Richard Harryman and Bob Mataia all returned to the starting 15 after spells on the treatment table.

The opening exchanges were fairly even, but Vale of Lune opened the scoring after ten minutes.

Vale scum half Billy Swarbrick broke through from a lineout to score with centre Ben Dorrington adding the conversion.

But seven minutes later Kendal struck back. A strong lineout from the home side saw the forwards take the ball to the line.

Despite the move being held up, the referee came back for a penalty, which the forwards ran, with Richard Harryman emerging to score. Glen Wightman added the conversion to draw the scores level.

Kendal had their tails up and when on the attack again the referee awarded a penalty for a high tackle on Dini Noyo - sparking an outbreak between the forwards with Billy Coxon and Vale hooker Daniel Baines both issued yellow cards.

Vale re-took the lead after 25 minutes when some excellent interpassing between their backs meant that, despite some desperate tackles, Kendal could not keep out left-wing Tom Ball. Dorrington added the extras.

With Kendal on the attack, Vale players offended to stop the move, sparking another exchange between the players resulting in the referee sending a second Vale player to the sidelines.

From the resulting lineout the Kendal forwards drove to the line where Harryman crashed over for a try.

Five minutes later, Kendal had the lead. Quick thinking by Dan Lowther, resulted in Noyo taking a quick throw to him. A good Lowther run set up a position, from where, when Vale offended again, Wightman put over a penalty to give Kendal a small lead at the break.

After ten minutes of the second-half Wightman extended the Kendal lead to 18-14 with a second penalty.

Three Vale mistakes finally swung the game in Kendal’s favour with just over ten minutes to play.

Wightman failed with a long range penalty but at the resulting restart a Vale player was in front of his kicker, giving Kendal the option of a scrum on the twenty two. The forwards took control for Garry Holmes to score before Wightman converted to give Kendal an 11 point lead.

Gough and Alistair Thompson put gloss on the performance with two late tries before centre Rob Lamberton added a late consolation for Vale.

Kendal team

Dan Lowther 15

Alistair Thompson 14

Bob Mataia 13

Mark Carruthers 12

Dini Nayo 11

Glen Wightman 10

James Gough (C) 9

Billy Coxon 1

Garry Holmes 2

Richard Harryman 3

Ben Leacock 4

Liam Hayton 5

Blake Robinson 6

Tom Voke 7

Josh Chaplow 8

James Cox sub

Chris Park sub

Duncan Green sub