Eccles 12 - 32 Kendal

KENDAL made it two wins in a row after seeing off a persistent Eccles side.

The Hornets buzzed around their opponents from the start and ran out winners to stay third, just one point behind local rivals Kirkby Lonsdale.

A bonus point victory over lowly Eccles, who are languishing second from bottom in the North One West league, was to be expected, but Kendal did not have it all their own way.

Kendal started well with Chris Downham winning Glen Weightman’s kick off and both forwards and backs put the ball through numerous phases of play, looking for an early try.

And they did not have to wait long for the opening score, which came after just six minutes.

Nathan Wooff ran an Eccles kick out of defence and when he was stopped the referee penalised Eccles for failing to allow him to release the ball.

Glenn Weightman made no mistake with the kick, slotting it between the posts to make it 0-3.

Eccles had a lot of possession but failed to convert that into points whereas Kendal had little of the ball but always looked dangerous.

The opening try came after twenty minutes when Weightman was held up on the line. The ball was recycled and James Gough offloaded to Garry Holmes who secured the five points for his team.

Weightman converted to make it 0-10.

And just a minute later, Kendal were celebrating again.

Eccles appeared to have taken their own kick off ball but when the ball went loose, Downham gathered and made a break.

He moved the play right and Glenn Weightman penetrated the Eccles defence before passing to Nathan Wooff in space.

He made a long run up the right hand touchline but as the defensive cover closed in he put a pass to Tom Voke who powered over for the try. Weightman again converted.

The Hornets were rampant and ten minutes later they had more points on the board.

Gough caught the Eccles number eight as he picked up from the scrum and Voke was quickly in to try to steal the ball, forcing a penalty to be conceded.

Liam Hayton took a difficult catch at the resulting lineout and the forwards drove to the line, where Duncan Green broke away to score and make it 0-22.

Instead of looking for the bonus point score, Kendal appeared to go down a gear, allowing Eccles back into the game.

As the half ended, Eccles had a number of scrums on the Kendal line, and finally their superior power saw them go over for the score.

The sides went in with the scores 5-22.

After a period of pressure, Eccles narrowed the lead after ten minutes of the half.

Kendal conceded a penalty near their line which was taken quickly and Eccles went over for a converted try to close the gap to just 10 points.

Eccles were in control for the next ten minutes, but a number of handling errors kept them from scoring.

Weightman then calmed the nerves with a long range penalty before a Gough try secured the bonus points.

Weightman slotted home a difficult conversion to finish the afternoon's scoring.

TEAM:

Nathan Wooff

Alistair Thompson

Leo Mercer

Bob Mataia

Dini Noyo

Glen Weightman

James Gough

Duncan Green

Garry Holmes

Jake Broomfield

Liam Hayton

Ben Leacock

Matty Houghton

Tom Voke

Chris Downham

sub Robbie Collinson

sub Mark Carruthers

sub James Thompson