Harlequins Provide Hammering at Headingley

Ugo & Luther
By Martyn Horwell
April 14 2008

This coming week, a joiner will order more nails, an axeman will sharpen his blade, and a fat lady will prepare for her performance. All three will almost certainly be gainfully employed next Saturday, and Leeds Carnegie will be confirmed as the team to be relegated from the Guinness Premiership. Its also possible that tomorrow Specsavers will get a visit from today's man in the middle.

Today, Leeds were second best to a Harlequins side, who became the latest opponents to collect a bonus point victory at Headingley. That the bonus point was as much due to some poor refereeing, does not take away the fact that the visitors were worthy winners, seemingly playing well within themselves, yet rarely being put under any sustained pressure from Leeds.

The game itself had a distinct end-of-season flavour, and sad to say all of Leeds failings were evident today. Slow ball, poor passing, dropped passes, poor kicking from hand, lost line outs, and poor decision making all contributed to this comprehensive defeat.

Quins took the lead on 3 minutes when Jarvis kicked a penalty, and on 5 minutes, old boy Danny Care made a break but just failed to collect his kick through. Shortly after though when Quins were awarded a penalty, Care quickly hoisted the ball to the far side where Mike Brown collected the kick and crossed in the corner, too far out for Jarvis to convert. After 15 minutes Di Bernado kicked a penalty from 30 metres, but the rest of the half was mediocre stuff, the 'highlight' being a yellow card to Ma'asi for allegedly kicking in the ruck. The only other score came in the 39th minute when Jarvis kicked another penalty after the Quins had wheeled a Leeds scrum on their own 5 metre line.

The second half was not much better. but 5 minutes in and Di Bernado reduced the arrears to 11-6 with a penalty. Quins then pressed the Leeds line and were awarded a free kick. Care reacted quickly and tapped the ball, but then appeared to drop it, regather and cross the line. Try given, Jarvis converted, and with 30 minutes left, it once again looked like damage limitation. At this point Leeds introduced Adam Balding to the fray, and things improved. 2 huge hits on Quins players resulted in Leeds gaining posession, and the team were transformed. Leeds produced arguably their best move of the season, moving the ball swiftly across the line. Vickerman made ground and passed to Hinton, who expertly drew the cover before releasing Welding on a clear 30 metre run to the line. However, with the crowd on their feet, Monye caught and tackled the Leeds winger, and a glorious opportunity had gone.

Quins returned to the other end, and following pressure, Evans rolled off a maul and crashed over by the posts for Jarvis to convert and make the score 25 - 6 to the visitors. More replacements came, and with his first pass Edwards almost hospitalised Oakley, and while his second pass was arguably worse, Burrell, who had replaced Welding, collected and burst through the cover on halfway. As the defence approached he missed out 2 Leeds players with a long pass to Hinton who scorched down the South Stand touchline to cross the line and run behind the posts. However, Mr. Richards stood impassively in the middle of the field with his arm raised awarding a scrum to Quins. There were ironic cheers shortly after when Strettle made a break, and instead of going on his own chose to pass to a colleague, and Mr Richards blew for a forward pass.

The final act came in stoppage time, when Edwards aimlessly kicked downfield, and after Brown covered the danger the ball rolled forward to a Quins player who was clearly offside. He looked as surprised as anybodywhen no whistle came, but he then galloped 60 metres into Leeds territory, and with Leeds' defence all over the park the ball worked its way to Skinner who crossed by the posts. Jarvis converted to give a final score of 32 - 6 to the Quins.

Leigh Hinton won the sponsors MoM, and probably just about deserved it, but my choice would have been Adam Balding. He was only on the field for 30 minutes, but Leeds looked so much better when he was there. So another disappointment, and another small crowd of 3,845 to witness what I'm sorry to say, was an uninspiring game, and a poor performance by Leeds. I know team selection was dictated by injuries, but Burrell showed great promise today, and maybe a couple more youngsters on the bench would not have done any harm.

Harlequins Provide Hammering at Headingley

Posted by: TykesRugby.co.uk (IP Logged)

Date: 14/04/2008 10:09

Harlequins Provide Hammering at Headingley