KENDAL suffered a 42-10 defeat to a powerful Bradford and Bingley side which contained a Tongan international and two South African provincial players.

But for half an hour at Wagon Lane it was Kendal who were on top, with Simon Mullholland's quicksilver running from full back opening the way for two tries from left winger Luke Ladell in the 19th and 30th minutes.

The two unconverted scores cancelled out a ninth minute Rhodes penalty for the Bees as Kendal led 10-3.

Five minutes later, the Bee struck back when Tongan Tafa was put in for an unconverted score to cut the tap to two points.

Then a minute from the break, fly-half Rhodes spurted over from a quick tap-penalty and added the conversion as the Bees strong-driving pack began to make inroads.

In added-on time, Rhodes then added a penalty as the Bees led 18-10 at half time.

Kendal did not score another point as the Bees went on to score four more tries, from Tafa (2) and Volschenk (2) in the second half - making six in all as their strength wore down an under-seige Kendal defence.

One positive for Kendal was Stuart Oliver, who made his presence felt with a fine first-team debut in the back row.