Rosslyn Park 26 Kendal 3 Rosslyn Park went some way to erasing the painful memory of their 39-9 loss at Kendal earlier in the season with a fine performance and victory at home against the Cumbrian side, writes Bernard Wiggins.

The wind blew with some ferocity and it looked as though the elements would again play a significant part in proceedings, as it had in the previous meeting.

However, it was the visitors, against the wind, who fared better in the early exchanges, a Mike Scott penalty in the third minute was followed by 20 minutes of classy handling that maintained the majority of possession without troubling the scoreboard further.

After a quarter of an hour, a ten minute snowstorm ensued and Park gained a foothold on the match when Justice punished the visitors for killing the ball, stroking an excellent penalty deep into the 22. Twice Park drove to the line and were held up, but at the third time of asking the ball was popped from the side of the scrum for Nick Marval to crash over.

Stuart Hibbert made the score 8-3 two minutes later and just on half-time an intelligent chip over the top by Marval caused panic in the Kendal defence, the full back being justly penalised for holding on and Hibbert making no mistake.

If the poor conditions had persisted at anything like the level they had in the first half, Park might have been in big trouble. But the snow ceased, the sun shone in a blue sky, and Park took full advantage of a short lull in the wind when Andy Maddock put Torquil Mathewson over in the corner.

16-3 soon became 23-3 when James Hendy nipped through a hole in the Kendal defence, beat off three tackles and rounded the full back for a rousing score under the posts.

Kendal's game plan was largely sterile and moves were often repeated so that the Park defence, which again shone, largely knew what was coming. Frustration set in at their inability to break the home side down and consequently they were either forced into kicking or were turned over, whilst Park kept the ball in the tight, sapping the strength of the Kendal pack and winding down the clock in the process.

The visitors did have a couple of half chances but Park were operating a rock solid defensive policy and their line was never in serious danger of being breached. At the death, Park turned over possession on the Kendal 40 metre line and drove to the 22, Hibbert applying the coup de grace with a penalty after Kendal went offside close to the posts.