Another Five-Pointer: This Time, FOR Leeds!
Try Scoring Hero!
By apb
October 29 2005
The East Stand was a pile of rubble, the P.A. was playing up badly, and the scoreboard didn't work at all! Welcome, Italian Champions, to the delights of the North of England! After giving Perpignan a half-time scare last week, the Calvisano boys must have thought this was game on...
The match started with attacks from both teams that were fairly predictably nervous attempts, with Leeds gaining the upper hand early on thanks to a 48m penalty kicked by Gordon Ross, awarded for Calvisano's backs crossing in possession. This seemed to pep the Tykes up a bit, as several good phases went by, solid rucking and quick ball, with options mixed between backs running and blitzing from the forwards. Calvisano's forwards were strong enough to keep them out though, and another penalty goal was the Tykes only reward.
Some fairly safe stuff at the restart resulted in a Tykes lineout deep into Calvisano territory, but possession was lost all too often in this crucial area, and Calvisano looked to release their backs to gain pressure. A good high kick over the top had Stimmo reaching for it safely enough, but he seemed in two minds as to whether to pass, kick safe or run with it, and ended up doing none of these and was bundled into touch without having moved more than a yard or two. Again some good phase build-up from the resulting line-out saw Calvisano gain the upper hand, and once again were kept out, and once again going away with only a penalty goal for comfort, scored by the fly half Herkules Kruger. Score 6-3.
The game then degenerated for a few minutes with neither side looking like a top class team - but then again neither side looked like eternal whipping-boys either. It was during this stage that the referee - M. Darriere of France - sustained an injury through getting a bit close to a ruck and had to be helped off. The two teams kept themselves warm while things were sorted out, and the touch judge M. Gauzere finally took over.
After the restarting scrum at which Leeds had the put-in, the Tykes' backs seemed to decide to have a go themselves, and a delightful wide pass out to Rees on the wing from deep within their own twenty-two had him scampering out making fine yards. Tom Biggs also had a run at this stage, and things were beginning to look positive for the Headingley boys. After an appalling line-out at which Leeds lost their own ball, they swiftly regained it again, and Andre Snyman made a bruising run through the midfield, and the ball was smartly passed through four pairs of hands to Tim Stimpson out on the wing. Although Stimmo couldn't quite make it to the line, the numbers were there to protect the ball, and after a couple of attempts, Rob Rawlinson barged over to score. The conversion was missed, but the score was now 11-3, and Leeds were looking good.
Well, for a minute, anyway! Almost from the restart, Calvisano took a collective gulp of air and came out all guns blazing, and after having gained possession ran the ball to half-way and a delightful chip and recatch by the Italian centre completely wrong-footed the Tykes defence. Through several pairs of hands the ball went, and a sublimely well-worked try was scored by the full-back Jacobus van Schalkwyk. An excellent conversion by Kruger, and suddenly it was too close for comfort again at 11-10.
Calvisano had their tails up, and a tentative restart gifted them possession again, and rumbled their way to just ten metres out before Leeds conceded a penalty, which was again easily converted by Kruger, leaving Leeds trailing at half-time, 11-13.
The 2,625 fans - almost to a man, woman or child supporting Leeds - were clearly nervous at this point. Calvisano were supposed to be the whipping boys of Heineken Cup rugby weren't they? Why were they winning? As they ran out onto the pitch for the second half, this tentativeness, this nervousness was clearly felt by the players, and with an almost annoyed gesture to the South Stand, Chris Murphy told us in no uncertain terms to get cheering! This seemed to have an effect, because within three minutes of the restart, Tom Palmer had touched down after a superb linking move between Stimmo, Biggs and Palmer to finish. Goggsy added the extras and it was 18-13.
Leeds were looking better in both defence and attack, and both Biggs and Vickerman had good runs that made great field position. Calvisano were not finished yet though, and some good counter attacking of their own pushed the Tykes back again. An infringement at the scrum following a Calvisano knock-on led to a penalty, and there was no hesitation for the Italian team to go for the points. Kruger stepped up and did the business again, making the score once again too close for comfort at 18-16.
Shortly after, the first wave of Tykes substitutes were made, with Bulloch, Dunbar and Doherty all coming on for Rawlinson, Hyde and Rees respectively. This seemed to do just the trick, as the opposition line-out was stolen and a beautiful long pass straight to Snyman from Marshall bamboozled the defence for a split second. An infringement at the ruck gave the Tykes another penalty opportunity, and Ross took it with aplomb. 21-16.
At this point the game looked to be all Tykes, and multiple phases brought them all the way up to ten metres out, and once again a penalty infringement gave the Tykes a penalty. This time, to the cheers from the crowd, they went for the corner. Murphy's fumble at the line-out was ajudged to have gone forward, and the momentum was temporarily lost with a relieving kick. At the next breakdown, once again the Italians were penalised, and M. Gauzere had obviously been pinging the same man during this time, since he lost patience and showed a yellow to Maurizio Zaffiri at blind-side flanker. With fourteen men on the opposition side, the Tykes knew that it was now or never to press home their advantage, and they duly did with an unstoppable rolling maul down the left, and TykesRugby.co.uk's very own Rayno Gerber was credited with the try. The difficult kick was missed, but the score was now 26-16. However, the scoreboard had been dead all game, and what with the referees changing over, there was no way of knowing how long there was left for play. But the reason why I was so anxious to know was not because I wanted it finish, but because I wanted to know if there was time for another try and the precious four-try bonus point that would put the Tykes right back in the Heineken Cup mix.
The answer was a resounding YES! With a strikingly similar move, the rolling maul was set up again following a penalty-kick to the corner, and this time the ball was spun infield at the last minute for Stimmo to run in and touch down near the posts. Goggsy couldn't miss this one, and that was more or less that. Final Score: 33-16.
Points of Note
I thought that the first half lineout looked just as poor as it has all season, and this really is a worry if we are going to gain our collective self-respect again. However it functioned really effectively in the second half, and Gordon Bulloch's arrival halfway through the second half improved it a little bit further. The back row were excellent throughout this match, and I think we may have found the right combination to test ourselves against Sale next week.
The backs looked sharp and hungry, and it was good to see the moves mixed up a bit, with some lovely long flat passes finding their way out wide, although again the Ross-Snyman short inside pass was over-used for my liking. The half-back combination worked well, though, and those people calling for Gordon Ross' head will have to wait just a little bit longer; his place kicking from the touch-line though, needs work! I have been a critic of Stimpson's for a while now, but I have to say that apart from a fairly shaky first fifteen minutes, he looked like a man who was interested, who wanted to play for the team and who was able to execute the moves well. In short, he had a good game!
The only slight nervousness I have about this, our one and only win this season, is that it was against Calvisano, and most of our tries were scored when they were down to fourteen men. There were still too many errors, and against Perpignan or Sale we will need to be considerably sharper in our execution if we are to keep the winning habit going. That being said, the old adage is that you play the team in front of you, and a win, with a four try bonus point and leaving Calvisano empty-handed, HAS to be a good enough result.