When push came to shove
Johnny Walker applauded
By Haxbytyke
February 3 2013
Leeds Carnegie regained the five league points they had taken off Plymouth Albion in January when they repeated their bonus point victory against the visitors from the West Country this afternoon.
Not only was the 5 points a repeat for Leeds, the game itself was almost a duplicate of the ill fated encounter, with Leeds dominating the first half, (scrums as well, please note), before a lacklustre second period that had the sparse crowd almost baying for the final whistle. Indeed, a better side than Plymouth would almost certainly have gone away from West Park with a victory given the territorial advantage they had in the second period.
Leeds kicked off, and after some early skirmishes took the lead on 10 minutes when they collected a line out some 20 yards from the line and the pack drove from there and took Ryan Burrows across the whitewash for the opening try. Ford converted from out wide, but from the restart Leeds conceded a penalty and from 30 yards, Roberts reduced the deficit.
Alarm bells rang 5 minutes later when the ref, moved a scrum because of the boggy pitch, but it didn’t affect the Albion fly half from landing another penalty.
Harris and McColl were prominent as Leeds pressed again, and when Leeds pushed the mighty Albion pack off their own ball deep in the 22, Bevon Armitage fell foul of the referee and saw a yellow card. Leeds took full advantage, and moved the ball out wide where McColl strolled through a huge gap to score close enough to the posts for Joe Ford to convert. McColl was in the thick of it again with a thundering run through the middle, and he offloaded to Dave Doherty who gleefully sprinted 40 yards to cross by the posts. Another conversion, 21 – 6, and Leeds was looking good.
Plymouth eventually worked their way into the Leeds half, and when they won a scrum, they took the ball round the blindside, and crossed out wide. Roberts missed the kick. With the last play of the half, Ford had the chance to increase his sides lead, but from 35 yards he pushed his kick just wide off the uprights.
The start of the second half was a scrappy affair, but 3 minutes in, and the visitors collected a line out and crossed for another try to reduce the arrears. The conversion attempt hit the upright and bounced away.
As in the original fixture, Leeds was defending in their 22 and conceded a number of penalties. Plymouth decided kicking to touch was the best option in the swirling wind, but again they could not find a way through, and Leeds eventually cleared their line.
Eventually the inevitable yellow card arrived, Phil Nilsen being the recipient this week, and another penalty to the Albion saw the lead cut to just 2 points.
Leeds now had their best spell of the second half, and they camped on the visitor’s line, but after a series of drives, they could not get across and eventually conceded a penalty and lost the ball.
When the bonus point try did come, it came out of nothing. Hampson collected the ball in midfield, and a little darting run created space out wide for Burden to gallop through. He timed his pass to perfection, and from 20 yards Doherty was in at the corner. Ford added an excellent conversion, and how vital that was to be.
If we thought the game was safe, Plymouth didn’t. Leeds made a raft of replacements again, (why?), and after a spell of pressure, Albion moved the ball wide. Although the winger was tackled he sent an overhead pass infield, where the pony-tailed number 6 was on hand to collect and score. The conversion took the visitors to within 2 points, and in the last few minutes, they twice looked as if they were going to pinch the points.
Firstly a great midfield break took a Plymouth player clear of the chasing pack, and he looked as if he had rounded McColl to go for the corner, but somehow Kirsty got across to bundle him to the floor. There was another surge by the Plymouth replacement, but again last ditch tackling kept him out, and when Plymouth were penalised for crossing, Joe thumped the ball off the park and Leeds had won.
Not a great game, but in my opinion, justice was done. Leeds had got the 5 points and that is all that mattered. Some notable performances, especially in the first half.
McColl, Nilsen, Tussac and Burrows were at the heart of everything, and Green and Myerscough were commanding at the line out. But my bottle of pop this week goes to Ben Harris who ran hard all afternoon, and certainly put in a full shift at the coalface.
So Newcastle next week, let us see what that brings.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:02:07:20:28:13 by Gelbel.
We went from cruising at 21-6 to clinging on by our fingertips at the end. Had just enough nous to hold on though, justice therefore being done.
In hindsight we were on a hiding to nothing with this game, glad we took the points
Quote:Carnegiette1
In hindsight we were on a hiding to nothing with this game, glad we took the points
You've hit the nail on the head there carnegiette, we had nothing to gain and everything to lose so job done and justice done.
We certainly haded back the initiative and were lucky not to lose it in the final throws of the game...There were some great flashes of inspiration...but that second half needs a lot of 'reflection' before Falcons game!We could really do with some (any) points next week...its also about 'showing' that we have aspirations...and might actually deserve to be in the play-offs!!
But as you say Carnegie...justice was done and points is points....but we have to learn to play 80 mins with more "nous" and less "noose"!!
Happy days!
(p.s. thanks Hax & Gelbel!)