Saints Manage to Find Their Feet at Level 5

A much better performance from Saints displaying more aggression, passion, and determination.

On a damp, miserable day Kendal travelled down the M6 following an early morning pitch inspection to confirm the game could go ahead. The travelling side sat comfortably in the top half of the league whilst Saints were 3rd from bottom.

Kendal won the toss and elected to play towards the car park in the first half. Saints started brightly in determined fashion moving a greasy ball away from the breakdown and probing the away side's defensive line. Saints’ half backs kicked intelligently looking to gain territory and forcing mistakes from the visitors. Both sides were working hard for a breakthrough, but the game remained scoreless until the 27th minute when Will Grabe latched onto a ball in the middle of the pitch, beating a couple of loose tackles he galloped under the posts to open the scoring, Alex White converted. 7-0 to Saints. Another good move on the stroke of half time put Jonny Allen into a gap, he showed the covering defence a clean pair of heels and cut inside the full back to again go in under the posts, Alex added the extras. 14-0 at half time.

Kendal came out for the second half with real purpose, possibly after their coach had given them the 'hair dryer' treatment. On 42 mins they worked an overlap onto the Saints' left flank and crossed in the corner - 14-5. Saints' forwards continued to work hard carrying good ball and presenting well for Dave Morgan to keep things ticking over from 9. On 54 mins, Kendal were caught offside at the ruck, Saints opted not to kick for goal and kicked to the corner. From the resulting lineout, the Sanders Bros combined with a quick throw, Joe to Jack and back again to put our hooker in at the corner, the conversion was unsuccessful but Saints led 19-5 with 25 mins left on the clock. Kendal never went away and were constantly probing, looking for gaps in the home defence and it took something a bit special from the Kendal full-back on the hour mark. Chipping over the Saints defence and regathering his kick from over his head and behind him he charged in at the corner! The conversion came in off the post and Kendal were within 7 points of Anselmians. Thankfully, there were no further points scored in the match.

The win sees Saints climb a place in the table with what was probably Saints best performance of the season. Confirming a genuine belief that this team belongs at this level of rugby.

Next week Saints travel to Cumbria to meet Penrith and will be aiming to continue where they left off on Saturday.

Report by Jamie Kimpton, Anselmians Director of Rugby