So Near, Yet So far...
By Martyn Horwell
October 26 2009
Leeds Carnegie won their first point since the opening day of the season courtesy of a gutsy display at league leaders Saracens. That they didn’t come away with more could maybe put down to two poor refereeing decisions, and another lapse in concentration at a critical stage of the game.
Early doors, the hosts with the aid of Mr. Rose’s whistle, had moved the ball quickly across their back line, but resolute defending kept them at bay, with Hinton, Welding and Rabeni making try saving tackles as the hosts applied the pressure. Suddenly ‘sir’ remembered he had two arms, and Leeds gradually moved up field. By now the aeriel ping pong had started, and the quality of that, or lack of it, meant that only the ball, and not the game reached any great heights.
However, the visitors had parity, and with Jackson and Thomas having exchanged a brace of penalties, the game developed into a midfield struggle for supremacy. 7 minutes from the break, a Saracens player broke through and looked certain to score, but Hinton made a fine tackle to stop the try. Unfortunately, Thomas was deemed to have killed the ball, and even though there had been no previous warnings, it wasn’t a surprise when a yellow card appeared. Leeds were again under the cosh, but they did break free and with only 90 seconds of a turgid first 40 remaining, came what may have been a turning point in the game. Sarries lost the ball outside their 22, and Leeds hacked the loose ball forward. As it bobbled about, Welding and Goode dived for the ball, but the ball saw them coming and moved aside. It came to rest over the line and Hendrie Fourie belly flopped onto it to ‘score’ a try. Mr Rose and Mr Maybank stared at each other, before deciding that Alex Goode hade made contact first, and ordered a restart on the 22.
The Leeds players were slow to react, and the drop kick was quickly despatched upfield, but the clock was showing zero, and Leeds appeared to have got through to the interval on level terms. Hintons kick though went up field instead of to touch and from their own 30 metre line, the Sarries powered upfield, shaking off attempted tackles, before sending Ratovou powering to the corner, where he shook off Hinton’s attempted tackle to cross in the corner.
The 11 – 6 interval score could so easily have been in Leeds favour, but they had played well enough to frustrate the league leaders and their fans.
The second half was dominated by the referees’ whistle, with seemingly each side taking it in turns to benefit from a shrill blast. Within 3 minutes, Leeds got the nod, and Thomas reduced the gap to 2 points, but almost immediately another howler from the man in pink was to prove costly to Leeds. The visitors were penalised, and Sarries took a quick tap and moved the ball quickly along the line only for Ratovou to drop the ball. Mr Rose decided no advantage had been gained, and pushed Leeds back a further ten metres for being offside. From this play, and with the assistance of at least one forward pass. Ratovou used his strength to cross the white wash again. Jackson tagged on the extras, and with 34 minutes still to play, we did wonder if the floodgates would open. That they didn’t shows how far this team has come in the last 18 months or so. Another Leeds penalty saw Thomas bring the deficit back into bonus point territory, and shortly after that he shaved the outside of the post with another difficult kick.
Leeds had a let off when somebody was penalised for not rolling away, (how do you roll away when you are trapped beneath a mountain of bodies?) but Jackson pushed a fairly simple kick wide. More penalties, and a host of replacements were now the order of the day, but the game sprung to life with 5 minutes left when Villi Ma’asi broke through from halfway. Lacking any support he chipped over the full back, but lost the race for the ball, Sarries cleared the danger, and when Leeds were penalised again, Hougard duly converted to restore the hosts’ 9 point lead. It looked as if Leeds would again get nothing, but they regained possession and drove into the 22. Good control by the pack enabled Matthie to fire a pass back to Thomas, and from 35 metres out, and to the right of the posts, he sent the ball soaring between the uprights to make the score 21 – 15.
That is how it ended, and while Mr. Rose won’t be on the top of any Saracens fans Christmas card list, I believe Leeds got the two roughest decisions of the afternoon, and the hosts tries both came on the back of these.
A classic it was not, but it was absorbing to the end. Opposing fans were unhappy with their performance, but quick to praise Leeds, and today they showed they need not be overawed playing at this level. There are still areas of concern, losing the ball from the restarts, dropping passes, backs taking the ball standing still, but there were good things as well. The scrum and line out were good, although the line outs suffered a bit when Nilsen went off, and all the replacements added something extra to the team. The biggest bonus though was the kicking of Ceiron Thomas, and while it was essentially a team effort, if I had a bottle of champagne to give away, he would get it for some excellent kicking throughout the afternoon.
The crowd was 7,123, of which possibly the 23 came from Leeds. We complain about our crowds, yet they are top of the league. So well done Leeds, it really was a case of so near, yet so far.
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WHATEVER IT TAKES
This coupled with the A-team performance will make the the selection of the match day 23 for Wasps very interesting!
Beeston, how does one acquire a carriageway on the M1?