Ten Costly Minutes

Ten terrible minutes put pay to Leeds’ hopes of securing their first win of the season, ill discipline and handing errors ruined any chance of Leeds taking advantage of a slim 10-7 half time deficit. Leeds travelled to Sixways buoyed by their 9 all draw with the Budgies the previous week and the travelling support made their way down the M1 confident of an improved performance against Wuss.

In Round 1 Wuss romped into a 17-0 lead against a fancied Saints team before cogitating and then surrendering this to lose 20-17.  At least one of the Wuss tries came from a break by their fast backs in a length of the field move.  Worcester have some speedsters and mistakes would be punished. Leeds’ result was less exciting in terms score but was a tense and gripping affair which kept the 7000 souls at Headingley interested until to the final whistle.  Leeds finished much the stronger and the fitness work by Nance and his team are paying dividends, this will be important throughout this season.

On to Worcester, having made the short journey from the 3 Pears to Sixways (in a slightly overpopulated Volvo) we arrived to a stadium filling with two sets of fans both sensing a victory for their team.  Leeds came out as the sun set and prepared to take the kick off.

From the kick off Leeds retained the possession and went on a promising attack, the ball was chipped through by Thomas to Welding but the ball ran through to touch.  Three minutes in Wuss went on the attack and in their haste to defend Leeds gave away a simple penalty which Willie Walker slotted to take the score to 3-0 to the home side. From the restart Wuss started a rolling maul (welcome back to that!), Leeds only answer to this was for Lund to pull it down giving away a further penalty.  Wuss went for touch but a cock-eyed lineout handed possession back to Leeds, time for the first scrum of the day.  After last weeks match the team apparently focused on improving this but there was no sign as they were destroyed.  The ball was retained and shipped to Hepworth who got mullered by Tuitupou making his return to the Wuss team from injury.  Wuss cleared the ball and Goodridge returned it with interest.  From the line out Wuss set up another maul and again Leeds could not stop it, Wuss went on the attack but it petered out. 

9 minutes in a sign of things to come, Rawly was down injured but after treatment he returned to play.  One notable action came from Blackett, prior to the game he was doing some kicking practice and showed this worked as he put in an excellent kick from 22 to 22.  13 minutes in and our scrum was again under pressure, Hardy folded more than Japanese Origami and gave away a penalty on half way.  After 15 Rawly gave way to Villi and his first action was to watch a Wuss lineout.  Wuss took this and spread it wide, a charging Sparky almost intercepted but in the insueing melee Wuss conceded a penalty which Thomas put to the corner.  From the lineout Leeds enjoyed some good possession which resulted in a scrum in a great attacking possession.  The scrum survived and Alfie picked up from the base, it was spread wide before Hepworth got the ball and went over untouched for a well worked try, Thomas got the kick taking the score to 3-7 with 18 minutes gone.  Two minutes later OJ went from hero to villain when he missed a one on one tackle on Alex Grove who went over easily, Walker converted and Leeds fans were deflated.  10-7 with 20 gone.Good attacks from both sides were turned over but mistakes and indecision meant Leeds went no where.  Leeds had a good opportunity when some pace was put on the ball, it was spread to Sparky who had possession of the ball before inexplicably dropping it for no reason at all….another good chance gone.  From the resulting scrum Gomarsall made his presence felt by irritating the Wuss 9, there was a bit of handbags between the two but the ball was spread and Latham cleared. 

With 35 gone we lost another lineout (nothing the forwards did worked) and Wuss set up a maul, they broke from the maul and went on the attack before Leeds conceded a penalty.  Smelling blood Wuss went for the corner but this time they lost the lineout and Blackett cleared.  With 39 gone Wuss had a scrum on half way, again ours was poor and we conceded a penalty, this time Wuss went for the posts.  The kick faded away and was eventually dotted down to take us to half-time.

Quick summary of the first half, Wuss average, Leeds poor, Scrum dire and handing errors/poor decision making is preventing any good attacks.  Must do better! Wuss kicked off the second half and unfortunately Leeds conspired to throw away a competitive position with stupidity and niavity.  Firstly Villi gave away a simple penalty allowing Walker to take the score to 13-7 with barely a minute gone.  Thomas kicked off and Wuss attempted a box kick only for Alfie to knock on…amazingly Wuss got penalised and we got the scrum. The handling degenerated with knock-on’s and dropped balls being the order of the day for Leeds, Wuss must have been laughing…I certainly wasn’t.  With 43 gone Wenzel was replaced, he looked to have been struggling for a lot of the first half.  Danny Paul came on in his place, he went to the back row with Myall moving forward to lock.  The next score would be key and it went to Wuss, a Walker drop goal took the score to 16-7.  If Leeds could get their act together all was not lost, unfortunately they couldn’t and with 45 minutes on the clock Fourie gave away a penalty which Walker slotted to take the score to 19-7. With 50 minutes on the clock Leeds needed to get their heads together, they did the opposite and lost them.  Wuss put up a high ball and no one claimed it, Sparky knocked it on and it bounced into the hands of Garvey for their 2^nd try of the game.  Walker missed the difficult conversion which left the score at 24-7 with 51 gone.  Leeds had conceded 14 points in ten terrible minutes which left them a very steep mountain to climb, they may be the fitter team but looking blunt in attack it looked to be all in vein. 

From the restart Wuss conceded a penalty, Thomas went for the corner.  Leeds had a line out on the 5m line, Leeds had to score, Wuss conceded another penalty, Leeds tapped and went for the line but the ball was held up…scrum 5.  With Wuss coughing up another penalty Thomas went for the corner again, Line out was secured and Leeds pressed forward, the ball was spread wide and Thomas, for some reason only known to him, put a grubber kick through which went dead.  That was his last contribution to this game as HP came on to fly-half. The ref finally got fed up with the increasing Wuss penalty count as he sentd try scorer Grove for a 10 minute siesta on 59 minutes.  This was the time for Leeds to strike, the one man advantage and superior fitness.  Leeds kicked for the corner and yet another lineout, it was secured and Leeds were held up, another 5m scrum.  HP put in a cross field kick to Blackett who showed good strength to secure the ball and stay in field, Leeds poured forwards and broke through, some decent handling by Leeds but unfortunately Hendre knocked on as we went through the last line of defence.  Scud replaced Blackett on the wing, could he add the cutting edge required? 

With 65 gone Wuss were pinged for holding on, Leeds went for touch.  I always thought that when you were struggling in the line out you should keep it simple, Leeds felt different and an overcomplicated lineout resulting in us surrendering possession to a grateful Wuss team. 

Leeds are poor in attack, unlike last week where we were hitting the gain line at pace this week we are just passing it back and forth and moving backwards…..not good enough.

With 69 gone Hendre was replaced by Calum, in the next scrum Leeds gave away another kickable penalty.  Walker stepped up……27-7 with 71 gone.  20 points behind, 3 converted tries, surely it was impossible.  For the next 5 minutes Leeds built some good possession, with 74 on the clock Leeds had a scrum and Wuss were penalised.  Calum tapped and went, he made good distance, the ball was spun out to the backs who dropped it, Garvey collected but knocked it on. 76 minutes gone and Leeds were on the attack, some great handling released OJ with the line at his mercy, he had two support players and was being chased down by Wuss.  He made the decision to offload, but it was too late, he was tackled and knocked it on only 5m from the line.  Leeds had all the possession but kept fluffing their line, the next Leeds attack was knocked back and the ball was lost.  Wuss kicked upfield and Scud tracked back to get the ball, he showed this strength and managed not to give away a penalty.  80 came up on the clock and Leeds kept on the attack, HP chipped through to Hepworth who knocked on again.  Scrum to Wuss and they went on the attack but knocked it on.  Last play of the game for Leeds, could they restore some pride for the travelling support.  Leeds secured another scrum but shock horror, another knock on (again by OJ), the ball was hacked upfield by Wuss, the ball hit the corner flag and sat up….Benjamin was on the charge but he was adjudged to have knocked on.

Full Time - Wuss 27 – 7 Leeds

 Worcester (10) 27
Tries: Grove, Garvey Cons: Walker Pens: Walker 4 Drop-goal: Walker

Leeds (7) 7
Tries: Hepworth Con: Thomas Worcester: Latham, Garvey, Grove, Tuitupou, Benjamin, Walker, Powell, Mullan, Lutui, Taumoepeau, Rawlinson, Gillies, Wood, Sanderson, Horstmann.
Replacements: Gear for Tuitupou (70), Crook for Walker (76), Arr for Powell (72), A. Black for Mullan (65), Fortey for Lutui (63), Ruwers for Taumoepeau (73), Kitchener for Rawlinson (65), Talei for Sanderson (70). Sin Bin: Grove (59).

Leeds Carnegie: Goodridge, Welding, Hepworth, Barrow, Blackett, Thomas, Gomarsall, Hardy, Rawlinson, McGee, Lund, Wentzel, Myall, Fourie, To'oala.
Replacements: Armstrong for Blackett (63), H. Paul for Thomas (59), Mathie for Gomarsall (54), Ma'asi for Rawlinson (15), Moreno for McGee (58), D. Paul for Wentzel (45), Clark for Fourie (69). Not Used: Swainston.

Att: 10,094