KENDAL RUFC drew 7-7 with league leaders Lymm on Saturday as both sides struggled with the blustery conditions.

Despite playing into the wind it was Lymm who made the better start and put the Kendal defence under pressure, but a combination of good tackling, some poor options and handling errors in the difficult conditions meant there was no early score.

Having held out, Kendal started to attack themselves but a well organised Lymm defence seemed to be under little pressure.

Both teams suffered from handling errors, with Lymm also seeing a number of passes taken away from players by the wind, but Kendal were not able to benefit.

Kendal had a chance to take the lead when Lymm were penalised for obstruction when Kendal failed to compete at a lineout, but the difficult kick drifted wide.

The Kendal pack was getting the upper hand in the scrums and managed to steal ball on a number of occasions on the Lymm put in.

There was a blow for Kendal after twenty five minutes when they were reduced to fourteen men with a yellow card for Matty Houghton, but the defence held firm.

There was a chance for Kendal when Chris Downham made a break from his own half after a scrum, only to undo all his good work by not spotting Dini Noyo and Will Montgomery who had done well to get in support, and failed to get a pass away.

After thirty five minutes there was another injury blow for Kendal, as the referee had to stop play for an injury to centre Damian Armstrong. Both teams left the field for ten minutes while the medical teams got him onto a stretcher with what appeared a serious injury.

When play resumed Danny Barker came on as a replacement, and five minute later he was to get the opening score when a short pass somehow found its way into his hands. As the Lymm defence initially looking as if may get back to catch him, he did not need Glen Weightman in support, and found the extra pace to go over under the posts himself. Chris Park added the conversion and Kendal led 7-0 at the break.

Lymm finally broke the Kendal defence after half an hour of the restart. They were held up over the try line to give them a scrum, only for the Kendal eight to steal the ball and make ground only for the rushed clearance kick to make little ground. From the lineout, it looked as if Houghton had stopped an attack, but the Lymm forwards drove their player over for the try, which fullback Cormac Nolan converted to level the scores.

Both teams looked for a winning score, and Kendal possibly finished the half the stronger, having their best phase since the beginning of the half, but when a Lymm attack was ended with a knock on, a minute into added time, the referee blew for fulltime.