Why We Remain Silent For Place-Kicks
By apb
December 13 2005
With the continuing (and seemingly never-ending) debate on the various rugby messageboards about whether it's good manners or simply a lack of passion that leads many supporters to be quiet during place-kicks, this match if anything showed the world the value of that particularly English tradition.
Yes, it was the final kick of the match. A last-second try on the right hand side by Gordon Bulloch set the score up to be 19-20, and only a conversion attempt remained in the match. Not the hardest kick that Gordon Ross has ever been asked to take, but by no means the easiest either.
The match had ebbed and flowed throughout the eighty-plus minutes. Leeds were first on the scoreboard after some excellent and positive play with several phases of posession caused a Perpignan infringement, and Gordon Ross stepped up to kick a 45 metre attempt through the uprights. 3-0.
Perpignan surged back, though, and using their powerful forwards in the rolling maul (a tactic that they tried to employ more and more as the game went on), the Tykes defence took their collective eyes off the blind-side and the nippy scrum-half took the channel and sprinted across the line for an excellent try. The conversion was good, and suddenly it was 3-7. More Tykes misery followed after the referee awarded a harsh penalty against the stubborn Tykes, with Laharrague getting the three points. 3-10, and this was a critical period for the Tykes boys. Lose another score, and it would like as not be all over. Score next, and game on!
So, game on it was, with the brilliant Roland de Marigny coming into the line from full-back after some smart work engineered the overlap, and de Marigny had no hesitation in haring across the line. The conversion attempt was missed, but the Tykes went in only two points down at 8-10.
De Marigny had been injured in that move, and so in the second half Tom Biggs entered the fray, much to the delight of the Tykes faithful. There was an early chance for the Tykes to regain the lead via a long-range penalty, but Ross seemed to slip as he took the kick and the ball scudded five feet above the turf and across the try line out of harm's way. From the resulting drop-out, Tykes regained posession quickly and Ross was on-hand to try for the drop-goal. No mistake this time, and 11-10 it was! The crowd went wild!
Once again, the ebb and flow of the game changed direction, with the Perpignan team playing some silky stuff to try to win the lead back. Sure enough after some fairly hairy moments in defence for the Tykes, Grandclaude was able to hold on to a low pass and strolled through for a good score. Conversion completed, followed by another harshly awarded penalty that was kicked with aplomb by Laharrague, and 11-20 was the score. Once again the collective breaths of the Tykes supporters was held. Surely they couldn't come back from this, could they?
The first twinkling came with another penalty, this time awarded for the Tykes, and Gordon Ross was equal to this one, and so it was 14-20, with approximately eight minutes to go. It was difficult not to think of the losing bonus point at this stage, but we were not done yet!
By this time, all the substitutes had been employed, and Gordon Bulloch had joined the fray. A couple of poor lineout throws from the former Scottish captain seemed to have wasted the final chances, but amends were made when a perfectly weighted throw went to hand and the driving maul, six or seven metres from the line was set up. There was no legal way to defend this and it was Bulloch himself who had the last touch down to set up the climax - 19-20 with a conversion to go.
So here we are then, back to where we came in. Gordon Ross has a kick to win the game. No time left for any further play. It was do or die. In his well practised posture, he stepped up and stroked the ball clean past the left upright and out. No score. The fans were heartbroken.
But wait a minute - what's that the referee is signalling? Making a "yackety-yack" gesture with his hand and pointing and glaring at the Perpignan players who had attempted the charge-down. There it is again! Now he's talking to Gordon Ross, and it looks like he's having another crack at it! With a final gesture to the defenders that they were not allowed any further attempt at charging down, the referee signalled to Ross to have another go.
And this time, it was perfect!
21-20! A magnificent win for the Tykes, extending the unbeaten run to four games and really giving the Leeds punters an enormous reason to celebrate!
Thoughts on the Game Itself
I thought Michael Cusack had an absolute stormer at loosehead. many people were expecting him to be given a torrid time by the Catalan forwards, but he was absolutely solid and gave as good as he got. Excellent too were Andre Snyman and Roland de Marigny, breaking lines and making angles all the time. The back row were great throughout and did their jobs with no fuss at all - Jordan Crane doing particularly well as the rear-gunner in the lineout. Stuart Hooper too led the team by example and had a great game. Rob Rawlinson had another belter and was only taken off through injury towards the end of the game - giving Bulloch his chance that eventually made the difference.
Special mention, though, has to go to Danny Care. With ultra-fast hands and a great understanding of where his team are at all times, he is snapping at the heals of the old-timer Justin Marshall for that starting place in the side.
This was probably once of Leeds' most complete performances in several years, and the new regime appears - at long last - to be bearing fruit. The players after the match were at great pains to point out how much of this is down to the coaching staff of Colin Stephens (kicking) and Daryl Powell (attacking). After all we've said about them during the start of this season, it's good to see that the coaches ARE respected, and ARE making a difference.
Now lets go to Perpignan and beat them there as well!