A cross-border raid proved successful for the Kendal club when their Senior Under-18 Colts brought the Lancashire County Cup to Cumbria.
They travelled to Heaton Moor Rugby Club (Stockport) to contest the final of the Frank Morgan Lancashire Colts Cup against Rochdale.
In a game that certainly wasn’t short on drama it was Kendal Colts who were celebrating at the final whistle, after claiming an historic 23-20 victory.
Last year, the Kendal Under-17 Colts were crowned Under-17 Cumbria Cup winners and, with no opportunity this season to compete in an Under-18 Cumbria Cup, were kindly invited to join the Under-18 Lancashire Cup.
The Kendal supporters travelled in great numbers down the M6 to Heaton Moor in the hope of witnessing the first ever Cumbrian team to lift the Lancashire Cup since its inception in 1975.
Rochdale were heading into the game buoyant after claiming the Halbro Senior Conference A league title, pipping Kendal by a single point, only three weeks earlier.
Conference A is the highest level of Colts Rugby in the North West of England, so a very close game was anticipated.
This would be the last fixture for this cohort of Colts, in what has been a great season for them, marking the end of their 10-year journey from Under-8 age grade, all the way to senior rugby.
The Kendal squad had enjoyed great success on the road in the opening rounds, winning against a well-drilled Rossendale side 37-10 and picking up a last minute win against Preston Grasshoppers 29-26.
The quarter final produced another away tie, this time to Manchester Senior Colts, where Kendal came away with a comprehensive 31-0.
It was even more convincing in the semi-final, their first home fixture, in which they beat Firwood Waterloo 45-0.
The final, the last match on an afternoon of four finals, saw Rochdale shock Kendal with immediate power plays and strong running, earning them the majority of the possession and an early lead with a converted try after only one minute.
Kendal seemed slow to engage with the game and their lack of organisation spurred on more powerful driving from Rochdale’s forwards and backs to force errors from Kendal, presenting Rochdale with a chance to extend the lead with a penalty after a quarter of an hour.
Luckily for Kendal, the swirling wind took effect and the kick was missed, only for Kendal to concede another penalty five minutes later, which was converted and allowed Rochdale to open up a 10-0 lead.
At this point, things weren’t looking great for a somewhat disjointed Kendal squad, struggling to gain possession, let alone put any attacking moves together.
Winger Judah Hicks went closest to scoring after a superb 35 metre run, only to be denied by excellent cover defence bringing his charge to a halt just a metre short of the Rochdale try line.
After knuckling down, re-setting and getting back to basics, Kendal managed to gain some territory and fly-half Aaron Stephens turned up the Kendal confidence half a notch by opening Kendal’s account with a try in the dying seconds of the first half, for a slightly more palatable half-time deficit of 10-5.
The second half started in a very similar fashion to how the first half had ended, with strong carries from both teams being met with resolute defence, on Kendal’s side led by Barney Coxon, Nathan Tizard and Fraser Stilling.
Kendal’s ability to get the driving maul functioning was starting to cause the Rochdale pack problems and persistent infringements from Rochdale saw Kendal awarded a penalty, which Stephens converted to cut the deficit to just two points.
From the resulting kick-off, Kendal constructed a couple of phases before Stephens kicked the first ’50/20′ of the match, giving Kendal the line-out just five metres out.
A well worked line out saw the driving maul again set-up and Rochdale were unable to stop Kendal from scoring a second try on 42 minutes, with Patrick Wolstenholme emerging from the bottom of the pile of bodies to claim the try.
Although the try went unconverted, Kendal had taken the lead for the first time in the match at 13-10.
The tide hadn’t turned completely however. Mid-way through the half Rochdale re-took the lead with an unconverted try.
The game then ebbed and flowed with Rochdale scoring an unconverted try on 57 minutes which was swiftly matched by the outstanding Kendal second row Oscar Coxon, who went over on 63 minutes. This time the try was converted by Stephens.
With just six minutes remaining Kendal led 20-15 but in this roller-coaster period of the game, Rochdale showed no signs of capitulating and the Cumbrians’ lead was once again wiped out on 67 minutes by a third Rochdale try to level the score.
Knowing that a successful conversion would retake the lead with only two minutes of the final remaining, it really was hearts in mouths time.
The Rochdale conversion attempt was straight towards the middle of the posts, only for it to fall short, strike the crossbar and bounce out.
From the restart, Kendal immediately gained possession and made good ground into the Rochdale half. Rochdale were now defending for their lives and when a player was adjudged to be off his feet at the ruck, Kendal were awarded a penalty right in front of goal 20 metres out.
Stephens made no mistake in converting the penalty to reestablish Kendal’s lead in what everyone thought was the last play of the game.
The referee had other ideas though. With five seconds remaining on his watch, Rochdale were allowed to take the re-start. Despite the ball not going the required 10 metres, Kendal collected the ball which allowed play to continue.
Kendal were then adjudged to have infringed at the ensuing ruck and a penalty was awarded against them.
Rochdale opted to kick for touch, winning the resulting line out and setting up their own driving maul, which made 20 metres before it was illegally pulled down by Kendal. Yet another penalty was awarded to Rochdale.
The crowd gasped in unison, as they anticipated a straightforward kick at goal to level the score. However, Rochdale had other ideas and chose to ‘tap and go’, only to be thwarted by Stephens who stripped the ball off the Rochdale attacker and, as the clock was now ‘in the red’, booted the ball wildly through his own uprights to end the tie
The Cup was won by what was a true Kendal team effort.
