FULL back Simon Mulholland collected an injury in Denmark at the weekend, but is expected to travel in the Kendal squad for the Peter Kremer Memorial Trophy match against Wharfedale on Saturday (3pm kick-off).
Mulholland knocked a knee playing Sevens for a New Zealand guest side in Copenhagen and missed Tuesday evening's practice match against Penrith, an entertaining 64-7 win for Neil Rollings' squad which attracted a decent-sized gallery.
However, the Kendal coach was hopeful of Mulholland appearing at some stage during the duel in the Dales.
Newly-appointed captain Mike Capstick had a leg problem and also is unavailable for the game against the National Division 2 opponents as is Mark Bowman, Mark Airey and Jon Ladell.
Kendal took a considerable time to confirm their dominance over a heftily-built Penrith outfit, who play several league levels below them.
Centre Martin Armstrong showed a pleasing sharpness to open the scoring and looked at ease as play-maker when the ball moved wide, another smart break releasing Jon Ladell to zip over on the right wing for the only other try of the first half.
Early intimations that Penrith could not live with the pace of the Kendal threequarters were fully confirmed after the break and a 10-try romp faithfully reflected the balance of the exchanges.
Identifying the try-scorers was difficult at times, despite the coach's assistance in seperating the Ladell twins - Jon and Luke - by the pitch's width as they pulsed down either wing.
Man of the match Jon Ladell opened the second-half scoring before Andy Hudson, Luke Ladell, Jon Ladell again twice, Dave Preston, Craig Atkinson and Liam Hayton all crossed.
Experienced prop Richard Harryman carries a lot of responsibility for leading the pack this year and showed considerable zeal to break the gain line, and it inspired those around him to follow suit.
Adrian Bateson at No. 8 has apparently lost almost two stones on a holiday ride over a couple of the Tour de France stages in the summer so should be fighting fit!
After containing Kendal to 14-0 at the turnaround, Penrith found themselves trailing to a cricket-like score of 52-0 before they earned a consolation try that at least denied their hosts a clean sheet.
Stand-off Dan Stephens, Chris Park and Andrew Boardley added the conversions, while the match saw the debut of new capture Phil Graham, the ex-Manchester and Waterloo centre, who blended in well alongside his new team-mates.
Rollings said: "I was broadly encouraged by the display, but I thought we were a bit loose and careless early on as we played pass-the-parcel with the ball.
"We were trying to force rugby to break out before it was ready too sometimes.
"We justifiably had the ball in our hands for most of the second half and played much better and made them look ordinary.
"It was not just a case of trying to put the man clear - the linking and support play by all the side was good to keep the ball moving, if the scrummaging at times looked rather rusty."
He summed up: "The jury's still out, but if we come away from Wharfedale having made a fist of it there could be grounds for optimism."
n The Kendal coach leaves from Kendal cricket club at noon.
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