Too Close To Call After Saints Victory


By apb
November 24 2005

It suddenly feels a whole lot better, doesn't it? This time last week, we were bemoaning the limited possibilities that Leeds Tykes as a team had to offer. There was no hope. We were the Premiership whipping-boys. We were down, and we were telling ourselves that we were out.

And then Northampton came to Headingley and the team showed us that actually they do care. They can play for a full eighty-plus minutes, and that last season's well-documented recovery from certain failure wasn't just a remarkable unusual moment in the inexorable rise of big money in the sport of Rugby Union. The team made a difference again. It was as if they'd been reading their St. Francis of Assissi, because where there was discord, they brought union, where there was doubt, they had faith, where there was error, they brought truth, and where there was sadness, they brought joy. Perhaps the most important point of all, where there was despair, they brought hope.

Friday's game against Bath will be a great test of that hope, as well as the nerve and resolve of the Tykes team. The last meeting between the two teams was the nervy end-of-season encounter at the Rec, where the result itself could have meant the difference between staying in the Premiership and relegation. Relatively speaking, a hoarde of Tykes fans made the trip down to the West Country to cheer the team on - as it happens - to another famous victory.

Friday night will see a different scene; very few Tykes fans will be cheering the team on in person. This is not because we don't care - we very much do. Undoubtedly some of the reasoning is because of the Friday night kick-off, that enemy of away travel. Some also, due to the live coverage of the game on Sky TV. Some, though - and I grant it is probably a minority of one or two - won't be going because of the appalling conditions one meets when one gets there. My experience in April this year was one of a very expensive ticket for a view of the back of someone's head. Only a tiny part of the pitch is visible at any one time from the Virgin "Stand", and in any other context one would be quite within one's rights to demand a refund.

It is quite frankly a disgrace that one of the acknowledged elite clubs of the Premiership can continue to offer such a shoddy view of their product. Moves are afoot to change, with all sorts of plans to re-develop the Rec as a proper stadium that seem to require years and years of planning effort. But until that time comes when the shiny new stadium is built, or the club moves, or whatever eventually happens, then I personally won't be bothering to visit.

But back to the game on Friday. Who will win? Who will come second, and will it be a close second, or a dreadfully embarassing second?

The fact that we can ask this question at all at this point in time means that the Leeds boys have most definitely come on, and the optimism levels of the fans have rocketed. But lets not get carried away. Bath are a strong side; always have been, and likely always will be. The old saying of one swallow does not make a summer holds true here, and Leeds fans should be very wary of expecting a winning run to flow out of the Saints victory. Work still needs to be done.

However, having named an unchanged twenty-two for the first time this season (and possibly ever), Phil Davies has shown a confidence that has clearly been lacking so far. John Connolly's final game at the Rec sees another Bath outfit designed to do a job, and it will be interesting to see whether the home side can reward their outgoing Director of Rugby (or Head Coach, or whatever he actually is) with a fine win and to hand the reins of power over to Brian Ashton with confidence, or whether it'll be Leeds that take the spoils.

Leeds know how to beat Bath; two out of three meetings last season showed that. But then again, Bath can do it too - remember that heartbreaking defeat at Headingley? Bath were clinical and played right up to the whistle. They won't be any different this time.

The two sets of fans agree on hardly anything (in a good natured way, I hasten to add), but one thing we do agree on is that it'll be a close thing. Whoever comes second is likely to have played well and come within a couple of points of victory.

Couldn't have said that last week, could we?

Teams

BathLeeds Tykes
David Barnes 1Kees Lensing
Pieter Dixon2Rob Rawlinson
Duncan Bell3Rayno Gerber
Rob Fidler4Stuart Hooper (c)
Danny Grewcock5Scott Morgan
Andy Beattie (c)6Jon Dunbar
James Scaysbrook7Richard Parks
Zak Feaunati8Jordan Crane
Andy Williams9Justin Marshall
Chris Malone10Gordon Ross
Michael Stephenson11David Doherty
Alex Crockett12Chris Jones
Andy Higgins13Rob Vickerman
Joe Maddock14Andre Snyman
Lee Best15Roland De Marigny
Rob Hawkins16Michael Cusack
Chris Loader17Gordon Bulloch
Gareth Delve18Roland Reid
Michael Lipman19Dan Hyde
Mike Baxter20Danny Care
Ryan Davis21Tom Palmer
Frikkie Welsh22Mark McMillan