Under 15’s at the Vale of Lune

Kirkby Lonsdale’s U15s travelled to Vale of Lune this week for a friendly game. Over the years both sides have been evenly matched, and both sets of supporters expected the same again.
Coming off the back of last weeks cup game victory Kirkby Lonsdale were in a positive mood, but somewhat sluggish in the warm-up.
Before kick-off all the teams at Vale of Lune observed two minutes silence absolutely perfectly.
Despite the wet and cold conditions the team sprang into life on Referee Gore’s whistle! Both sides turned each other over a few times, until once again the breakdown kings of Kirkby turned over possession, the ball went through a few hands and then Turner put his foot down to score in the corner.
Vale came back, but again Kirkby won the ball back and went up the field with purpose. Barker bounding his way over from a gut busting run off the back of the scrum.
Kirkby started to apply the pressure with the the half backs of Armer and Gore and the back line members of Jennings, Clayton, Wilson and Jackson absorbing pressure in defence and striking forward in attack, neatly setting up our battering ram Hutchins to smash holes to put Turner on an angle to score again.
Vale responded but the water tight defence was solid, with key tackles and jackles from Hill, Black, Woodburn and Muldowney ensuring the gates were firmly shut.
A solid team performance in the first half with Jennings going over for a great try and Southey zipping his way over at the end of team built try.
27-0 to Kirkby Lonsdale at half time.
The half time talk was about playing our game, moving the ball at speed and being ferocious in defence.
Both sides came out of the blocks fast, referee Gore letting the game flow. After another breakdown turnover Ogden pile drives forward to offload to Southey for another try.
Vale started to respond and Kirkby had to scramble several times to keep the door shut, the game started to become more end to end, but with the forwards of Holdsworth, Skelton- Montgomery, Ludlam, Stephens and Willoughby putting in a big shift the foundation was made for Turner after several phases to score again.
Vale didn’t crumble and responded with a well worked try under the posts. 40-7 to Kirkby Lonsdale.
With the Vale gaining momentum in the last 10 minutes of the match, Kirkby responded with everything in the tank with Hope scrambling to keep the defence tight, Kirkby’s backrow struck again, turning the ball over and setting Turner to run in for another with Gore converting to make it 46-7.
Massive credit to Vale who responded in the final minute with a multi phase play, and scored a great converted try. Kirkby’s defence just ran out of players.
Final score 46-14. A good day of rugby from both sides. Real credit to Vale of Lune who battled for the whole game.
A big shout out to Gareth Gore for stepping into referee the game and he did it superbly! Also a big mentioned to our two injured players Harrison and Derbyshire for coming to support their 22 team mates today.