Expensive new signing
By Chris Oakley August 23 2009
Travelling down to Wales to face one of Europes top sides was always going to be difficult and so it proved.
On a bright calm day in a magnificent stadium Leeds kicked off and as a result of two turnovers Leeds spent the first 10 minutes encamped in the Ospreys half. The pressure finally paid off when Leeds were awarded a penalty under the posts converted by Thomas, 0-3.
Straight from the kick off the Ospreys drove towards the Leeds line and earned a 5 meter scrum in the corner, the scrum half chipped the ball behind a flat footed Welding for the winger Walton to score in the corner.7-3
The Ospreys next try came from a scrum in midfield the center opened up the Leeds defence with a clever reverse pass that enabled the scrum half to glide over for a try 14-3.
Just before half time Leeds were defending in their own 22 when a break from Goodridge and Burrell saw them run the lengh of the field for a try under the posts. 14-10 H/T
Jerry Collins came on at half time and immediately got stuck in with a tremendous charge at the Leeds line only to be held up, however from the resulting scrum 5 the Ospeys scrum half Jamie Nutbrown just slipped through to score an easy try without our flanker or scrum half laying a finger on him 21-10 From the restart the Ospreys Ian Gough stupidly pulled back a Leeds player from jumping for the ball, thomas kicked to the corner an a catch and drive on the Ospreys line saw To-ala emerge from the bodies to score a try 21-15. The ospreys were to score next a Leeds scrum on the half way line saw Bedford pass intercepted by an Osprey for an easy run in, he looked offside but the try stood. 28-15
Leeds were next to score in this see-saw game a midfield break by Barrow and a long pass out to Burrell for an easy run in. 28-20
The Ospreys got the final score a turnover on the halfway line and a hack through saw 5 Ospreyes players chasing the ball to the Leeds line without a Leeds player in sight, Sonny Parker won the race to score an easy try. 35-20. Yet another turnover on the halfway line saw the Ospreys do exactly the same move, a chip kick over the leeds defence should have given the Ospers another try but this time Welding got back to force a knock on just as the player was about to score.
In the last 10 minutes over 14 players were introduced and the rest of the game just lost its sructure.
Leeds fail to clip Ospreys' Wings
Posted by: TykesRugby.co.uk (IP Logged)
Date: 23/08/2009 10:58
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We looked pacey in open play, Goodridge and Burrell in particular. Wingers never got a look in.
Scrum and lineout were OK
Bad
2 Ospreys tries came from turnovers on the halfway line and they almost got a 3rd the same way
On a calm dry day our kicking was woeful and we missed several straightforward kicks which could have given us another 10 points
Clean catching at the restarts need to improve.
General
We are still poor at the breakdown, I would have thought that with Back as coach we would be better. Referees are looking for players to release the ball quickly when tackled but because our forwards are too slow to clear out or our 9 is too slow to get the ball away we are being pinged for holding on or turned over. For me this is a major area for improvement if we don't get it right it will be a long, long season
I was at the game and I think we still have trouble with defense with our backs. The Ospreys backs were half a yard quicker and turned our players easily.
Our forwards were good in the first half and they scrummaged well and the lineout was good. We actually took some of their ball. In the second half with the changes the scrum was not as solid.
We must remember that the Ospreys were missing at least four/five from their backline and if ours stays the same this year we are going to leak alot of tries
There wasn't much pace on either wing, we tried all 3 scrum halves but none of them got the ball away quickly enough, they need a few lessons from Paul Hodgson of London Irish on how to re-cycle ball quickly.
MIC it wasn't just the scrum half to blame, because we didn't clear players from the ruck the 9 had to go digging for it or we were penalised for holding on. The Ospreys realised that because all our players were attacking any sort of turnover would mean there was nothing behind us to stop them running through, they scored 2 tries doing this and they could have got a third if it wasn't for a last ditch tackle by Welding. Had we had a sweeper the scoreline would have been much closer. The problems at the breakdown reminded me of the away game against Donny last year when a world class ref pinged us every time. I'm not advocating a sweeper because we would have fewer options in attack, what we must do is secure good quick ball at the breakdown. To be fair we had our fair share of turnovers especially in the first 20 mins.
Well done on that match report, D27. With all the substitutions that was a difficult game to describe. At least it wasn't a humiliation. I must say it was reassuring to see Gomersall in the first half.
No it was Thomas, missed 4 straightforward kicks on a calm dry day. Hopefully he just had a bad day, I did notice that we had no other kickers playing, so we had few options. I saw a tape of the French game when Thomas played alot better. I know I'm pretty much alone here but I would prefer to start with Strange against Newcastle, he knows what's required in the Premiership and can, when he's on top form, control the game by kicking us into the right areas.
Must have been the Welsh air Dragon, a few weeks away fom it obviously made him dizzy on his return. Strange is fine for place kicking but does not get much distance from hand. I always think Goodridge should kick the penalties when not going for goal.
If I remember correctly we used Hinton's kicking talents for his first season, then after that, nothing. Unless he's got some slight injury from the boot I'm not sure why.
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