Italian Rugby on the Up
By apb
September 5 2005
A small, and barely recognisable signal was sent across Europe just the other week when Treviso shocked everyone and beat Bath in the Heineken Cup pool stages. Everyone went to sleep again when Bath redressed the balance of play in the return fixture.
The status quo was restored - Italian rugby was the poor relation (as far as quality of play is concerned, anyway) of the rest of Europe.
Everyone - and I mean everyone - was guilty therefore of taking the game this Sunday too lightly. Leeds Tykes v Petrarca Padova was going to be quite literally a walk in the park, and most of the usual supporters felt able to take the afternoon off, assured of an easy victory with a hatful of points and a cruise into the semi-finals of the shield competition.
So in the eerie silence as both teams walked out onto the park, no one quite believed what transpired. A Leeds team vastly different from the one announced in the press - no Balshaw, no Snyman, no Hyde, Albanese on the bench, Dickens filling in on the wing - made excruciating work of the first half. A series of mis-handling leading to knock-on after knock-on, a fussy French referee and a Padova team vastly superior to that which graced Headingley back in 2002 saw a score settled at 0-0 after 20 minutes.
A minor infringement on the half-way line by the Tykes saw the Padova number 10 - Luciano Orquera - point towards the posts, and sure enough slotted home for a 3-0 lead. The fans that had bothered to show were incensed, and, sensing that this should shake the Tykes out of their dull torpor, "roared" the Tykes down to the far end of the field, where repeated infringements gave a penalty try. Under the new IRB regulations for 2005 this meant that a Padova man had to go to the bin, and winger Pablo Calanchini was the unlucky recipient of the yellow card.
Another penalty shortly after ensured the 14 man Padova team stayed in touch, and then it appeared that the floodgates were about to open when a surging move from all 15 men set up the ruck close to the Padova line, with Mark Regan picking and driving over the line to score in the right-hand corner. The conversion was missed, and Leeds were 12-6 up with a few minutes of injury time still to play.
It can't have actually been like this, but it appeared as if the Leeds team were still walking backward towards their line when the restart was taken - such was the apathy and lack of application that emerged from the Tykes team. Padova scythed through the Leeds defence and after two or three phases, Orquera went over unopposed to score a good try which won deserved applause from the exclusively Yorkshire crowd. Orquera kicked his own conversion and sent the Italians in for their half time cuppa at 13-12 up.
Second half, and some substitutions. Hooper came on for Palmer. Dickens came back in from the cold at scrum-half at the expense of the lacklustre McMillan, who made way for Diego Albanese to come back at left wing. An immediate impact was seen - also a result, I suspect, of a well placed Phil Davies rocket at half-time - with Albanese getting straight in on the action darting in and out and breaking over the line for a fantastic individual try. This was repeated again a few minutes later to put the Tykes in charge at 24-13. But Padova always looked a threat, and several times their talisman centre and captain Matteo Barbini broke through the puny defence, only to be put down by desparate, last-gasp tackling - most notably in one case by Albanese again who was my man of the match.
Clearly towards the end of the game the Tykes were trying things out; several times Phil Christophers found himself on the wing signalling toward the far side expecting the long cross-kick, but several times the referee pinged for technical infringements by the Tykes. One of these many incidents led to a bout of fisticuffs, and the ref had no real choice but to bin a man each; Gavin Kerr and Gerhard Laufs were the men to visit the dugout. From the penalty reversal that this caused, the Tykes took their chance, the cross kick came - although a little shallow it allowed Rees to gather before being wrapped up by the lone defender, but he offloaded to a marauding Stimpson to touchdown in the muddy corner. A difficult conversion was missed and the score was 29-13. Another restart, and the Tykes were - for a short period - looking for another score, but once again the fists were out, and the referee, along with the rest of the crowd, lost patience and blew for full time.
Performance
The first half was a dreadful display from the Tykes; they seemed not to be interested, and very quickly the sparse crowd seemed to turn on them. Stimpson looked nervous under the high ball, and McMillan's delivery was ponderous and frequently inaccurate. The defensive lines looked static and weren't able to cope with the surprise of an Italian side with skill and pace in their armoury.
Ross had a pretty good game, however. His tactical kicking was swift and assured, and although he didn't find ALL his touches, most of them were true and some clever mixing of run, pass or kick kept the Padova team a step or two further back in the second half. Without ever really inspiring the crowd, Bell looked accomplished playing inside centre, with Christophers looking good also in the outside centre role. The pack looked assured, although worryingly were pushed back once or twice in defensive scrummaging until Cusack came on after 60 minutes, but the line-out was solid on own ball and spoiling on the defensive side. The biggest effect, however, was the introduction of Albanese in the second half. The little guy looked as hungry as ever and mesmerised the Italian defence with his running, and stopped them dead with his hard, no nonsense tackling. He may have only played for 40 minutes, but he was far and away my man of the match.
As a team, there's a long, long way to go before we can say we deserve to stay in the Premiership. If a performance like this is put in at Headingley next against London Irish, then a loss is highly likely. Congratulations to Padova, who made Leeds look the ordinary side that they currently are.