BIRKENHEAD PARK 7 – KENDAL 20

Kendal all but secured the crown of North One League Champions with their victory over Birkenhead Park on Saturday – Kendal can now only be denied if they loose their two remaining fixtures and Huddersfield win both of theirs by an overall points margin of 120 points better than Kendal.

After two days of heavy rain which was still coming down as the players ran onto the pitch meant the conditions for open, running rugby were far from ideal. But after the opening fifteen minutes during which both sets of forwards tested each other out and the referee with persistent infringements resulting in a yellow card being shown to the Birkenhead Park hooker the game settled down.

From the penalty awarded to Kendal, when the hooker was sin binned, standoff Dan Stephens (returning to the side after injury) kicked the ball to touch deep into the Birkenhead twenty-two, the lineout throw was caught by the impressive Gareth Gore and the now familiar driving maul was set in motion for hooker Duncan Green to be driven over the try line. Stephens missed with the difficult conversion from close to the touchline and in fact with conditions under foot being so slippery none of Kendal’s tries were converted.

Both sides to their credit tried to play rugby in the inclement weather with Kendal at times throwing wild passes with gay abandon but there were no further scores during the first half.

Kendal scored early in the second half to double their lead. A tremendous 45 metre driving maul from a lineout on halfway earned Kendal a 5 metre scrum from which No.8 Mark Wilson burst off the back to score. Thirteen minutes later Kendal scored their third try. A deft chip across the Birkenhead Park twenty –two into the corner by Stephens was chased hard by winger John Ladell and he used his strength and the conditions to great effect when he slid in to gather the ball and touch it down over the try line.
With the final ten minutes approaching Dan Stephens was penalised and deemed worthy of a yellow card by the referee. Birkenhead took full advantage of their extra man and right wing Andrew Trotter running a brilliant angle at pace burst through the Kendal defence to score a converted try beside the posts.

Kendal quickly regrouped and replied in the best possible fashion – with their fourth try. The forwards drove the ball up field aided by a galloping run by Gore to take the ball close to the Birkenhead try line and after a couple of rucks Mark Wilson was driven over for his second try of the game and wrap up Kendal’s 20th league victory of the season.