Furness came away with an emphatic victory over Kendal at Mint Bridge scoring
8 tries to 1. Centre Lee Haney and number 8 Charl Barnard both helped themselves
to hat-tricks as the men in blue ran riot in this Westmoreland Cup encounter. Thom
Vanstone moved from full-back to fly-half and opened the scoring with a penalty quickly
followed by the first two of Haney’s tries for a 0-15 lead. The big Kendal pack were
no match for the hard-working Furness eight who provided a steady flow of ball and
it was Vanstone who took advantage to cross the Kendal line. Winger Simon Braithwaite
then set up Haney for his first-half hat-trick with the straight-running centre picking
up a pass from the winger following a mazy run which left the Kendal defence in tatters.
Lee Edwards came off the bench for Sam Halpin and immediately got into the action
with some telling breaks. But it was forward power that produced two tries for Charl
Barnard and then prop Ivan Allonby for a 0-46 lead.
Scrum-half Richard Smith had a great game and was a constant thorn in the Kendal
side, if he was not beating them with the ball in hand he was knocking them over
with some tremendous tackles. However it was that South African, Barnard again who
charged-down a Kendal clearance to score his third of the game and Thom Vanstone
duly converted for an unassailable 0-53 lead. In the dying seconds Kendal had a rare
foray into the Furness half and scored with the last move of the game, 5-53. The
try is only the third scored against Furness in 2008 and speaks volumes about the
unweilding blue wall of defence which has been vital in their success this season.
This was a game too far for the Furness side who found some of their players
turning out for their fourth match in just over one week. Two leagues above Furness
Upper Eden proved to be a stern test and with plenty of first team players it was
a good yardstick for Furness to measure themselves and they came out of it with some
credit too.
A re-arranged team saw Chris Dalton returning from injury and finding himself
at outside centre but remained undeterred as he opened the game with a couple of
barnstorming runs. The big Upper Eden pack were out-scrummed by the Furness eight
however the men in blue found it difficult to cope with the strong mauling tactics
of their opponents. Thom Vanstone opened the scoring with a penalty, 3-0, however
Upper Eden hit right back and used a rolling maul to score under the sticks, 3-7.
Furness had plenty of possession but failed to capatalise as moves continually broke
down in the middle of the park from which Upper Eden took the advantage and made
in-roads into the Furness defence and scored their second try of the match from a
5m scrum for a half-time lead of 3-14.
Furness moved Dalton back to the pack with Phil Brockbank swapping places to
move to centre and began the second half on the front foot. Good work by Charl Barnard
produced mid-field ball for fly-half Vanstone who turned on the power to out-strip
the Upper Eden defence for the try of the game in the corner, 8-14. Furness were
a converted try from taking the lead and kept the Upper Eden defence busy with some
telling breaks, winger Simon Braithwaite, second-row Tom Quinn and prop Lee White
were always willing to carry.
Young winger Andrew Brannon took over and was immediately called into action pulling
off a try saving tackle to prevent Eden from scoring and it was from the resulting
scrum that Furness mounted a counter-attack which so nearly resulted in a try in
the opposite corner. Wingers Braithwaite and Thompson combining well. The Upper Eden
muscle proved too much for Furness to handle and it was their turn to turn defence
into attack, eventually leading to a penalty in the final kick of the game, 8-17.
A good game of rugby from which and Furness can take something positive for the future.
