Tykes Stay Rock Bottom....
By Tukey
September 5 2005
Tykes are now 5 points adrift at the foot of the Premier League following a bonus point win by Wasps at the Causeway. It took Wasps only 7 minutes to score the first of 4 tries through Tom Voyce. After good handling and interplay between King, Tom Rees and Dallagilio, Voyce race to the corner.
The Tykes first up tackling was missing and Wasps were able to run at will in the mid field.
Tykes managed to build up some pressure of their own which forced Wasps to infringe which enabled David Doherty to claim 3 points for the visitors. A few minutes later Doherty missed another from the halfway line, which had the legs but not the accuracy.
Another piece of good work from flanker Rees also saw him delivering the final pass to Ayoola Erine who drifted outside Phil Christophers to score the Wasps second try. A penalty from Alex King on the 30-minute mark cancelled out Doherty’s earlier attempt. On the stroke of half time Erine, Voice, and Van Gisbergan combined to put Tom Rees over which saw the half time score 20 – 3 with Kings conversion.
During the half time break Phil Davies made 3 changes bringing on Tom Biggs for Bell, (Biggs went to wing, Snyman moved to the centre), Dickens came on for McMillan and Murphy came on for Palmer. This last change left me wondering why? The other changes I could understand, Bell had been missing tackles, Dickens would speed up distribution, but Palmer had been his dominant self in the lineout and had made a couple of good runs. Yes some of the lineouts had gone wrong, mainly due to over throwing by Regan and no fault of Palmer.
Also during the break the scores from the other Premier League matches were announced and it was noted that both Quins and Sarries were leading. I doubt this was done to intentionally to spur Tykes on but they came out more determined after the break. Some patient build up saw them apply most of the early pressure. This resulted in a well-deserved try for prop Matt Holt. Doherty converted this to put the Tykes well back into the game. Further pressure from the Tykes pack saw Shelly driven over for his first try in 68 premier league outings. With around 12 minutes to go the score was 20 –15 with all to play for.
In between the Leeds tries, Warren Gatland then made some changes of his own bring on Brooks for King, Purdy for Birkett and crowd favourite Leota for Greening. Leota was immense from the off and managed many of his trademark barn storming runs and Wasps finished the stronger side. With time ticking away Leeds tried a number of things to get themselves in a scoring position with both Biggs and Doherty causing the Wasps defence trouble. But as usual the support or ball not going to hand was Tykes down fall.
Biggs was on hand again to make a brilliant try saving cover tackle. Will Green took the ball through the middle of the Tykes back line, after another Leota charge, with no one in front of him a try was certain until Biggs made the tackle. It was Leota who had the final say on the day when he crashed over the line, putting Wasps out of sight and Tykes away from even a bonus point. There was some dispute in the bar afterwards about the grounding of the ball. However, the ref, who made use of his whistle too much for my own liking, gave the try so that is that.
To look at the score does not indicate the way the match went. In the first half Tykes, once again were their own worst enemies – missing tackles, over throwing line-outs. In the second half Leeds were more than a match for Wasps and the match could have been closer if Doherty hadn’t missed 2 penalties, both from the half way line and a touch line conversion. This is no slant on the lad who once again, along with Biggs was the Tykes best player. For any team to go to the Causeway and come away with a win is difficult. There is a definite atmosphere of ‘belief and belonging’ among the supporters, players and backroom staff at Wasps one which I as a Tykes supporter can only be jealous of.
One more comment on the day. As I was leaving the Causeway Stadium I saw a few Tykes players speaking to Wasps supporters before getting on the team bus. The players in question were laughing and joking, only one of them Ronnie Regan, looked dejected by the loss. I am not advocating being rude or not speaking to supporters but they looked happy and seamed oblivious to the predicament they are in. Perhaps they know something I don’t and they are not intending to be a Tykes player next season anyway.
Wasps: Van Gisbergen; Sackey, Erinle, Hoadley, Voyce; King (Brooks, 63), Fury; Payne, Greening (Leota, 63), Dowd (Green, h-t), Shaw, Birkett (Purdy, 63), Hart, Dallaglio, Rees.
Tries: Voyce, Erinle, Rees, Leota.
Cons: King, Van Gisbergen.
Pens: King, Van Gisbergen.
Leeds: Doherty; Snyman, Christophers, Bell (Biggs, h-t), Rees; McMullen, McMillan (Dickens, h-t); Shelley, Regan (Rawlinson, 54), Holt, Hooper (capt), Palmer (Murphy, h-t), Hyde (S Morgan, 54), Rigney (Popham, 37), Parks.
Tries: Holt, Shelley.
Con: Doherty.
Pen: Doherty.
Referee: S Lander (Warrington).
Att: 7,545.
Where do Leeds Tykes go from here? We have 4 more matches, Tigers at home, Glaws away, Quins at home and Bath away. None of them are easy and none are guaranteed wins. All we can hope for is that we win as many as possible or at least get a bonus point. Our nearest rivals for the drop are Northampton, five points above us on 31, who have an ‘easier’ (there are no easy matches at this stage of the season) run in. They play Quins at home, Bath away, Falcons at home and finally Worcester away. I am not one to gamble our premiership future on other teams but we can all hope that Northampton loose them all. Harsh but fair I think in the circumstances. Sad fact but….by the time we play Bath in the Powergen Cup final we may already be beyond saving.
In the bar after the match I was speaking to an old work colleague who is now on the community development side for the Wasps. He said something that has stuck with me. We were talking about relegation and he said, ‘What do Leeds bring to the party?’ I had to think for a minute or two before he said, ‘Not a lot really is it?’ I had to agree not much……..
Many a comment has been made in this forum about playing standards, coaching ability, lack of supporters, lack of money, no belief by the management etc etc the list goes on. It will be a sad day if we are relegated. I feel that if we are then that will be the last time a rugby union team from Leeds will be in the top flight of rugby union. How many supporters will travel to Plymouth, Penzance or Bristol? Not many – certainly no more than the dozen who were at High Wycombe yesterday! How many supporters will go to a home fixture? Will the management keep ‘pay rolling’ the use of Headingley?
The thought is just sickening. Now is the time for players and coaches to sit down and decide where they want to play next season. I for one hope they decide it’s Leeds Tykes in the Premier League.