Disappointment for Tykes - Players and Fans Alike
Half-Back
By apb
December 31 2005
I have to be honest and say I'm pretty disappointed. This was a fixture, that, after the last four games, we all had earmarked as a five pointer. Newcastle were on a downward spiral, and Leeds were on the up, up, up.
However the match itself saw a lot of ebb and flow, with neither side dominating, although Tykes had a good deal of possession. Falcons were the first to get on the scoreboard, with Tait going over in the corner and Burke adding the extras for a 7-0 lead. Gordon Ross and Matt Burke exchanged penalties to take it to 3-10, before some great sweeping movement put Andre Snyman away. Ross added the extras to take it to 10-all, before Burke again converted a good length penalty to take the half-time score to 10-13. The second half saw a few missed penalty chances and a lot of missed try-scoring opportunities - largely due to excellent defence from Newcastle. Tyke had the lions' share of possession, but had no cutting edge in the backs to make it stick. Final score: 10-13.
But its not really the game itself that has left me so disappointed. Its pretty much everything else. For example, the crowd of 11,601 was by far the largest crowd I've ever been a part of (last year's 14K+ crowd was minus me due to family wedding commitments I was unable to wriggle out of). And yet the atmosphere was what could be described as "muted". It remined me of being in a busy pub, where lots of talking and drinking was going on, it was impossible to move very far without nudging someone's pint, and yet the entertainment that had been specially laid on by the management was playing itself out virtually unnoticed in the corner.
Disappointing.
Then there's the reaction of some of the regular contributors to this board. We've had four games of a turnaround, where a team that was looking like the most hopeless of cases and dead certs for the relegation trap-door had turned itself round and started looking like they could compete again. Perpignan, especially, (or USAP as Timofe informs me we should call them) were especially surprised at the narrowness of their victory in Catalonia, not to mention their loss at Headingley. And yet, with one single, narrow defeat at the hands of our old nemesis and bogey team, cries of "Davies Must Go" and "Worst Performance I've Ever Seen" have arisen.
I'm not one to deny anybody their opinion on things, but for me, that's disappointing, coming from obviously passionate and faithful fans.
Its absolutely telling for me what Phil Davies said after the game. There was no "we can take a lot of positives from this game", no "we've had a chat as a group and we know the things that went wrong" - phrases that smack of platitudes to get past the press scrum as quickly as possible. Phil Davies spoke of his "disappointment" at the scoreline, given the number of chances on offer. I can't hand on heart say I know the man terribly well, but I read "disappointed" as "absolutely livid" and I strongly suspect there were one or two words had after that performance. I strongly suspect that even if Leeds had sneaked the win, Davies would still have been "disappointed" - with that amount of possession, nothing less than the full five points should have been taken. Newcastle did to Leeds what Leeds did to Bath in November.
Disappointing indeed.
And so we come to today's match, where a mere four days after the Christmas fixture, we are the guests of Gloucester at Kingsholm. The same fixture last season saw the Tykes lay the Kingsholm hoodoo of previous years, score four tries (including a memerable and rare Gavin Kerr score for the try bonus) and continue what was ultimately the run that saved Leeds' premiership bacon.
Gloucester will want revenge, and with a new coach and a new found optimism this season, they stand a real chance. But don't dispell Tykes' chances just on the basis of the Newcastle match. I firmly believe that the team has now found its way, and the Newcastle game was a blip. Gloucester won't find this game easy. Neither will the Tykes, but they can progress with their form and show character to win this one.
No more disappointments.