Kendal 48 – Liverpool St Helens 12

Kendal continued their unbeaten run with a good victory over LSH at Mint Bridge. Kendal started fantastically well and within the opening five minutes they had scored two tries, both scored by winger Luke Ladell on his return to first team action after his shoulder operation in May.
His twin brother John, playing at scrumhalf for the injured James Gough, got in on the act scoring two tries himself in the eleventh and nineteenth minutes. His first was from a scrum in midfield, showing all his pace he simply looped round the defence leaving them standing and the second came from a penalty lineout, the forwards drove the ball forward and when it was released a superb pass from flanker Andrew Hudson gave Ladell the space he needed to race through the gap created in the visitors defence. Dan Stephens successfully converted three of the tries to take Kendal out to 26 point lead.
But three minutes later with Kendal pushing for a fifth try James Donnelly intercepted a long pass to run it back over forty metres and score beneath the posts. Standoff Ashley Stuart converted the try and three minutes before halftime scored LSH’s second try when the visitors capitalised on a Kendal fumble in their own twenty-two and Stuart scored when he dived in at the corner for an unconverted try.
Kendal started the second half just as they had the first, scoring two tries in the opening five minutes. Flanker Andrew Hudson got both tries, the first he scored when he burst from the back of a driving maul taking the defence by surprise and the second he scored when the defence held off him and he just kept running through the twenty-two to touch down for Kendal’s sixth try which Stephens converted.
Four yellow cards, three for LSH and one shown to Kendal, midway through the second half rather disrupted the flow of the game but Kendal finished the game strongly scoring two further tries in the final eight minutes.
No.8 Rob Quarry scored the seventh when he was driven over from a catch and drive close to the LSH line. Luke Ladell capped a successful return to first team action completing his hat-trick when he benefited from centre Ian Voortman’s powerful run out of midfield.
This sixth league win keeps Kendal top of the North One table ahead of next week’s opponents Huddersfield on point’s difference.

Andrew Hudson - Dives over for a Try

Ruck in the Middle of the Park

Luke Ladell - Powering towards the corner for a try

Kendal driving towards the try line