Lydney 20, Kendal 16

KENDAL mounted a fine fightback to go into the last five minutes of a hard-fought match just a point down only to be pipped at the post when a long-range penalty secured the spoils for the Gloucestershire side.

If Kendal had secured better possession at several vital lineouts it might have been a different story, but overalll the Mint Bridge side showed real team spirit and determination to keep in the contest after trailing 17-3 at half time.

Starting well, Kendal applied good pressure and forced a penalty after five minutes for crossing in the backs, but Scott slanted his kick across the posts.

After the scare Lydney showed what they could do three minutes later with a tremendous try, short-passing driving play among the forwards working the ball down a narrow channel on the right touchline before a long pass was sent out for centre Holford to race clear under the posts,

Morgan adding the conversion.

Lydney then went 10-0 ahead after 14 minutes when Morgan added a penalty for a ruck offence after Holford took crash ball to breach the Kendal 22.

Mee kicked Kendal into a promising position inside the Lydney 22 soon afterwards, but Gowing could not find his man with the lineout ball and the inability to secure possession at this set-piece was a problem which dogged the visitors throughout.

Kendal got on the scoresheet after 22 minutes when Scott kicked a penalty, but Lydney struck back four minutes from half time with a second converted try to turn round 17-3 ahead.

In a neatly-rehearsed movement, flanker Cadwallader took the ball on a blindside peel before stepping inside the last line of defence to ground the ball, with Morgan adding the extra points.

Kendal looked to have plenty to do, but to their credit they came out with a lot of determination and their perseverence and hard work earned two penalties in the opening quarter of an hour.

A lively break by Jimmy Thompson had Lydney in trouble and after Mee sucked in the defence, they infringed at the ruck and Scott made no mistake with his kick.

Lydney were then pulled up by the referee for crossing about 38 metres out and conceded another 10 metres for back-chat which helped Scott punish them again.

Kendal were enjoying their best passage of play, but when they worked a clear overlap after 57 minutes Mee kicked straight into touch.

Two minutes later, Kendal were left with a man down when Wolstenholme was sin-binned for pushing a hand in an opponents' face, but Lydney could not capitalise and missed a penalty soon afterwards for a ruck offence.

Another Kendal chance went begging after making good ground through the centre, the ball moved out through several pairs of hands only for the final pass to Bland to go to ground and Lydney cleared from the resulting scrum.

What Kendal could achieve when they got their lineout play right was shown in the 75th minute.

Cleanly-taken ball enabled them to set up a driving maul which swiftly gained 20 metres before play was opened out and Voortman burst through the last line of defence and managed to stretch out his arm to ground the ball in the tackle over the tryline.

Scott's conversion narrowed the gap to 17-16 with four minutes remaining and seemed to have set up a grandstand finish.

Unfortunately, things went awry straight from the restart and Coxon was penalised for handling at the ruck when the ball did not come back cleanly and Morgan punished the lapse by kicking the penalty from 44 metres out.

Two minutes from the end, Kendal had one last despairing thrust at the tryline but wingman Balmer was bundled into touch and Lydney managed to hang on to their lead until the final whistle.