WESTOE 21 – KENDAL 35

Kendal travelled across to South Shields to play Westoe in a crucial North One league match.
In good conditions Kendal opted to play up the slope in the first half and put the first points on the board through a well taken drop goal from the boot of Dan Stephens in the fourteenth minute.
But Westoe responded almost immediately with the game’s first try. From good scrum ball in midfield the ball was whipped out to the left winger who was cutting a wonderful angled run which took him clean through the Kendal defence to score a try beneath the posts. Standoff David Haswell converted to give the home side a 7-3 lead.
However with the Kendal forwards beginning to make a strong impression on the game they drove the ball up field and from a ruck close to the Westoe try line scrumhalf James Gough sniped round the blindside to touch down in the corner which Stephens converted from the touch line.
But moments before halftime Westoe again opened up the Kendal defence working a similar move to their first try, this time it was off lineout ball and it was the right winger who burst through on the inside angled run to score the try which was converted to make the score line 14 – 10 in their favour at halftime.
Kendal used the slope to their advantage from the start of the second half and from a lineout in the forty-forth minute flanker Nick McKain was driven over for an unconverted try to give the visitors a one point lead.
That lead only lasted five minutes as Kendal were trying to move the ball through midfield they fumbled the ball, Westoe capitalised when their standoff stepping out of the final tackle scored their third try which he also converted.
Kendal learnt from that mistake and immediately tightened up their game using the slope with some intelligent kicking to keep Westoe pinned down in their own twenty-two and forced a penalty in the fifty-second minute which Stephens slotted between the uprights to pull Kendal within three points.
Kendal took the lead in the sixty-eighth minute when flanker Andrew Hudson scored an unconverted try from an excellent driving maul. They extended that lead seven minutes later when they defended heroically to eventually turn the ball over and quickly moved the ball out to John Ladell on his right wing and he put the after burners on to out pace the chasing defence and dive in at the corner for the decisive score that Stephens brilliantly converted.
They wrapped up the victory from the restart when McKain broke through a couple of tackles to crash through the defence.