Rugby will be breathing a sigh of relief after an impressive performance finally ended their losing sequence and gave them their first league double against an in-form Kendal side.

Lions at last broke the run of defeats that was threatening to undermine their season with this very pleasing victory that completes a double over the in-form Cumbrian side.

Lions kept almost the same team as the previous week at Hull but Tom Major was injured and Dave Campton was with his wife and new baby, their replacements being Jon Pateman and Liam Munro being asked to fill in at lock.

Rugby looked lively from the whistle and took the lead through centre Jack Green’s neat drop goal after 5 minutes.

There was a threat of a breakaway try by Kendal which showed the importance of Rugby avoiding any of the handling errors that have been a little too common in their previous two games.

Matt Goode has a been relatively quiet in those two games but he burst into life on 16 minutes, barging two tacklers away before feeding Alex Nash who showed his great speed before being held, only to find Liam Munro in exactly the right place to score Lions’ first try converted by Lloyd Warner for 10-0.

Warner was more heavily involved in Lions’ second try, making a fine return run and releasing the lightning-quick Joe Marston for a second Rugby try, expertly converted by Lloyd for an unexpected 17-0 lead with 23 minutes played.

With Kendal on a good run of four wins from their last five games, albeit all before the weather disruption, and with a well-respected pack, it was obvious they were going to come back at Rugby.

Lions resisted the increased pressure but at a cost of two penalties kicked by Mark Ireland and with the second seeing the sinbinning of Lions skipper Alex Nash.

Lions, however, had the benefit of a Warner penalty before the interval to minimise the impression of Kendal having established a platform to turn the game by half time when the score was 20-6.

But with Nash still off, Kendal did score their first try through tall lock Gareth Gore and wit Kendal showing more fluency and beginning to dominate territory, Lions looked under extreme pressure.

But Lions were showing the defensive tenacity and commitment that characterises their play and Kendal were never able to breach the home defence again.

The only other score of the tightly contested second half came from an attacking Rugby lineout taken by Nash before Phil Reed fed Warner who completed a highly influential performance by finding a way through between two defenders to score rugby’s third try.

Lions would have liked the 4-try bonus point and had a sniff of a chance late on the but the move came to nothing and Rugby will have been well pleased to break the losing run and set themselves up for some better results in the coming weeks.

Warner, Marston, Goode, Green, Harris, Andrews (Reed 54), Barker (Parker 67), Williams, Price (Spokes 76), Pateman (Warrilow 67), Munro, Weaver, Humphrey (Saunders 33), Carney, Nash