Kendal’s Under-18s are unbeaten so far this season and added an impressive scalp to their collection at the weekend.
They travelled to take-on Manchester in the quarter final of the Halbro Frank Morgan Senior Colts U18 Lancashire Cup and came home with a fine 31-0 victory.
An early penalty saw Manchester make ground into the Kendal half but some good defence led to a penalty, which Aaron Stephens used to gain valuable ground back up-field.
A maul from Kendal was stopped short of the line but relentless picking and going from the base of the ruck led to captain, Barney Coxon getting the first score.
The rest of the half saw Kendal camped in the opposition’s half with Manchester defending well but unable to get out.
At the mid-point in the half Kendal scored another try from Coxon which resulted from a short pick-and-go and at half-time they led 10-0.
The second half started much in the same vein with Kendal dominating possession and territory but unable to convert this into points.
Eventually, though, a carbon copy of tries one and two followed, with Coxon scoring under the posts from a short distance after picking up from the ruck and diving over to complete his hat trick. Stephens slotted the conversion.
A few minutes later, Kendal scored the best try of the game with good forward work followed by clinical hands out wide. Winger Luke Atkinson was on the end of the final pass to score, with Stephens again adding the conversion.
The final try came after a clever kick from Stephens was chased well by Idris Hill who tackled the receiving Manchester player over his own try line. A solid five-metre scrum saw number eight Patrick Wolstenholme pick and score under the posts for Stephens to complete the scoring with the conversion.
It was a great display from Kendal in both attack and defence against a good Manchester outfit who kept going right to the final whistle.
Manchester gave Kendal’s Charlie Lowther the Man of the Match award.
The Colts have been rewarded with a home draw for the Semi Final against Firwood Waterloo on Sunday, March 19.
