Tigers Rising
By Peter Creek
January 24 2007
The Guinness Premiership, as we know, is devoid of teams from Yorkshire and Lancashire. But looking down the National 1 table the highest placed Red Rose club is not Fylde, Orrell, Manchester nor Preston Grasshoppers. No the current “pride of Lancashire” title goes to Sedgley Park Tigers.
Situated just north of the M62 by junction 17, geographically and just below mid table in the league the Tigers’ star is in the ascendancy. This despite the fact that after half a dozen games this season they were favourites to return whence they came. There was an indication that they might be underperforming when they came to Headingley Carnegie on the second weekend of October and raced into a ten point lead. Even at half time they were more than holding their own against the Tykes with the score at seventeen all. They ended up with nothing that day but I remember thinking at the time that they were not as bad as their lowly league position suggested.
So we come to the return fixture this weekend. Tigers are a more confident team this side of Christmas but then again so are Leeds. The clubs have different priorities. For the Tigers, consolidation of their place in this division has to be the target for this season. Tykes are top of the pile but with Titans and Knights snapping at their heels they cannot afford to slip up against lesser opposition, especially with tough fixtures against Bedford and Doncaster in the offing next month.
Despite the fact that their team is sitting on top of the league there is a belief among the Tykes faithful that the best is yet to come. A talented back division misfires with alarming regularity and we only see glimpses of the real quality that is occasionally unleashed on the opposition. The forwards, on the other hand, are the heroes of the piece as week in week out they are consistent and excellent. Everyone at the club appreciates that their contribution to the cause this season has been colossal.
Last weekend Stuart Lancaster made a statement to the rest of the division by taking a strong squad up to Tynedale for the National Trophy tie. The Tykes came through that game relatively unscathed and Lanny now has the confidence in his squad to win both the league and the cup. He clearly believes that his backs need as much game time together as they can get and that his forwards can cope with a full fixture list.
If one thing is certain on Saturday it is that Leeds and their fans will receive a warm welcome when they cross the
For all the home side’s progress I think that Tykes will have too much firepower for them and will shade the Tigers by nine points.