Match Review: Leeds Tykes 27 Saracens 18
Man of the Match 1
By Loosehead (4/11/2002)
November 5 2002
"Football its a funny Old Game" "Football - a game of Two halves" I can never remember if it was Jimmy Greaves or Ron Atkinson - maybe both - who came up with these pearls of wisdom.
So on my long trip back North on Sunday it got me thinking about the game I witnessed and I think these 2 pearls of wisdom summed the afternoon up for me:
1. Rugby can be a funny old game ( If you don't know the rules), and
2. the game was most definitely a game of two halves.
The First Half
The first half saw Leeds out-played for the whole 40 minutes by a strong Sarracens side who kept us pinned back for most of the half. Although Leeds struck first with a BVS penalty the Saracens got first blood with a try by England flanker Richard Hill - this after Leeds tried to run the ball back from their own half. Chris Hall was caught just outside the 22 and the ball was turned over. After some quick work Hill went in at the corner, Goode missed the 2 points and it was Saracens 5 Leeds 3. After the restart Saracens moved back in to the Leeds half. They pinned Leeds back, and with BVS off for blood replacement Saracens looked to take advantage of the re-shuffle. With a lineout to Saracens close to the Leeds line they attacked through the forwards but the Leeds defence held well, the Saracens opted to play wide but they could not cross the line. With the referee signalling a Sarries penalty he seemed to let the game flow for a good few minutes before calling both sides back to the original infringement. Instead of taking an easy 3 points Sarries opted for another lineout, which produced their 2nd try by French prop Califano. Goode kicked the extra 2 to make the score Sarries 12 Leeds 3.
After the kick off Leeds stepped a up a gear albeit for a few minutes and were rewarded with a peach of a try by Gordon Ross who slipped through the tackles to score under the posts. BVS added the 2 and it was now Leeds 10 Sarries 12. But Leeds took their foot off the pedal and allowed Sarries to dominate the rest of the first half where Goode bagged 2 more penalties and they came close to a 3rd try, but due to some excellent tackling by Scabs, stripping the ball from the Sarries winger before he could touch down.
The Second Half
Into the start of the second half it looked like Sarracens were going to continue where they left off, but Leeds decided it was now time to enter the game. Zac and George played well with the former driving hard off the base of the scrum to make some good hard yards, and the latter doing the same from midfield. His drives up the middle of the park led to some handling on the deck and BVS added the much needed 3 points. Leeds 13 Sarries 18. For the next 15 minutes Leeds' play was the more dominant and after a couple more BVS penalties and bit of luck - when Sarries had a penalty and kicked for touch but the ball went dead - Leeds managed to push in front. Even the decisions which went against us in the first half now seemed to go our way.
 Man of the Match No. 2 |
A Sterling second half performance from Leeds, but 2 individuals will share my Man of the Match: step up Zac and George! They put in some big hits and some big runs for Leeds to bring us back into the game. Although BVS had another good day at the office and Chris Hall had a 78 metre try, if it wasn't for these 2 leading from the front we might have struggled to get back into the game.