Leeds Carnegie 25 U S Dax 18
Saves the day
By Richard Cundall
January 12 2008
Leeds must have taken to the field last night with a spring in their step. With an away win against US Dax under their belt and no hope of the french team qualifying for the next round, thoughts must have been of a bonus point win. Conditions were not great, but good teams perform in any conditions....
From the kick off, a typically bullocking run from Dunbar saw Leeds get to within 10 metres of the Dax line, only for the pernickety Italian referee to award a penalty against Leeds for holding on.
Leeds were then forced into a defending role. The same forwards who had held their own against the vaunted Wasps pack found themselves on the back foot. It was Dax who made the hard yards. A kick by the Dax No 10 Argel was easily collected by Tuilagi
in his 22, but poor decision making enabled the attack to charge down Di Bernado's clearance and Dax were 5 points to the good.
From the restart the Leeds forwards took the play into Dax's half and were awarded a kickable penalty for their efforts, a further 3 points were taken on the half hour mark; but on a cold windswept night this looked the only way that Leeds were going to get onto the score board. Slow ball, poor passing, and at times bad decision making saw the backs look very pedestrian with no one really breaking the gain line. A penalty was kicked by each side, and a further long range attempt by Di Bernado was missed bringing the score at the end of a pretty dismal half to 9 - 8 in Leeds favour.
The second half continued in the same vein with Leeds in possession but failing to make any significant breaks. From a woeful mid field pass Dax collected the ball and moved it wide to the winger Mbu who beat the scrambled Leeds defence led by Satala who had replaced the injured Tom Biggs. Williams' conversion took the score to 15-9.
With no Leeds try looking likely the home side were offered a chance when the effective flanker Deniau was sin binned for a deliberate knock on. Leeds were awarded 2 penalties which were converted bringing the scores level. Still, a try did not look on the cards as strong Dax defence kept Leeds at bay, until Di Bernado moving to take a drop goal passed to Hepworth, who reminiscent of his play last year, sidestepped brilliantly and scored under the posts. The conversion took the score to 22-15.
The Dax flanker returned and with the teams at parity once again the clock ticked by with neither side offering inspiring play. A further kicked penalty to both sides brought the final score to 25-18.
The Leeds play, like the weather was pretty dire. Although the lineout functioned well and the scrummage was solid, the Leeds forwards always seemed to be on the back foot.Tackling at times looked flakey and Dax found it all too easy to make ground down the inside channels. Di Bernado's kicking from hand was solid, but his tackling was not. Hepwoth scored a good try but he does not look to have the kicking range of Hinton, who again looked effective when he replaced Tuilagi. Not for the first time the backs looked to have little cutting edge and they will need to find more fluidity and running lines if they are to trouble the GP teams for the rest of the season.