KIRKBY Lonsdale came away with their heads held high following their match against Billingham.

Head Coach Scott Armstrong found that 15 of his first team squad were unavailable for the long trip to league high flyers Billingham.

The courageous young team who represented Kirkby Lonsdale Rugby on Saturday knew full well they were in for a difficult afternoon

Under the magnificent Captaincy & motivational guidance of Rugby League Legend Leeandro Kwiczor the Kirkby team were pretty much out gunned in every element of the game except for ball handling skills and total commitment which to be fair often unsettled the big opposing forwards creating some handling errors that provided the scraps for Kirkby live on.

No 10 Harvey Williams gave a great performance as Kirkby's running backs the occasional chance to show their real potential but the well organised powerful Billingham defence consistently denied Kirkby the score they really deserved.

Lacking height and precision in the Line Outs and Sheer size and organisation in the Scrum. Kirkby's turnover count mounted steadily throughout the game creating regular opportunities for Billingham to break an already fully stretched Kirkby defence.

Not surprisingly several collapsed scrums, resulted in penalties against Kirkby, in a separate incident Kirkby lost the promising Winger Charlie Oats to a Yellow Card decision, this little run of setbacks increased when Harvey Williams suffered a nasty knock and played no further part in the game.

In the end Kirby went down 76 points to nil, but they gained the respect of their top flight opposition and a warm ovation from the Billingham supporters for the Kirkby sides nonstop commitment to dealing with the almost impossible odds.

Kirkby’s young team supported by a couple of stalwart senior players had no points, but they had one big thing to take with them on the long ride home and that must have been a bus full of pride.