What happened at home to Leeds last season?

29 point haul
By Duncan Wood
January 29 2003

It's basically a rehash of last season's match report from the Memorial Stadium meeting between Bristol and Leeds. However, it turned out to be a real epic with Leeds almost pulling off an astonishing comeback. Refresh your memory here!

It all started fantastically for Bristol. Within 60 seconds of the start, the Leeds defence had been cut to shreds and David Rees looked set to score. Unfortunately, he lost the ball as he went over and Bristol had to settle for a Felipe Contepomi penalty.

That was the story of the first quarter of an hour or so. Bristol dominated possession and territory and Leeds defended stoutly and not always legally! Contepomi and Dan Parkes had taken it in turns to go for goal and the Argentinian outgunned the Aussie to give Bristol a 9-3 lead.

Bristol extended the lead on 20 minutes. They got within a yard of the Leeds line and Fea'unati killed the ball and was yellow carded. Bristol took the scrum and moved the ball left. Contepomi scooped the ball up one handed from the base of the ruck, powered down the blindside and went over in the corner.

5 minutes later, Phil Christophers received the ball on the 10 metre line. He broke a tackle and made the break. He shrugged off attempts to get to him and sprinted over to the left of the posts. A quality score. The conversion from Contepomi made it 21-3.

Bristol were rampant now and it seemed only a matter of time before the next score came. It was on 34 minutes and lovely hands in the Bristol backs released Contepomi in the right hand corner. It was 28-3, the game looked dead and we started wondering when the bonus point for the 4th try would come.

Perhaps it was then that the guys switched off. Leeds rolled a few phases and worked an opening for Chris Murphy on the stroke of half time. 28-10. We applauded politely. It was the least the Tykes deserved. Little did we know what was to follow in the second half.

The first 20 minutes of the second half were distinctly dull. There was no continuity and the game was continually stopped for injured players to receive treatment. Felipe Contepomi added a penalty to make the score 31-10 after a spell of Bristol pressure.

On 61 minutes, Leeds kicked a penalty into the Bristol 22. The catch and drive was worked cleverly and Cammie Mather slipped off the maul down the blindside. Only Agustin Pichot was alert to the danger but the flanker drove through the tackle for the try. An excellent touchline conversion brought it back to 31-17.

The Tykes' tails were up. Another lineout brought another catch and drive and our much vaunted pack was being shoved around. Garath Archer watched on from the dugout and a lot of supporters would have wanted him on the field sorting things out. An opening was worked for Jon Benson out wide on the right and he dived over in the corner. Parkes' conversion hit the post and we were grateful.

Bristol did try and step it up a gear to try and kill the game off but the ball was spilled in contact far too often when a score seemed inevitable. With a minute to go, we coughed the ball up yet again and Dan Scarborough finished off a near length of the field move. The conversion made it 31-29 and the unspeakable looked possible.

The crowd did their bit and came to life, cheering Bristol on. The forwards got a maul rumbling on. Leeds came in from the side to bring it down. A penalty was given and Felipe Contepomi drilled it over to make the final score 34-29.

So, what went on exactly? The first half contained some of the best rugby I've seen Bristol play in a long while. The forwards were dominant. Felipe mixed it up well - he drove Leeds back with the boot but opened it up when he thought fit. The backs all looked sharp and dangerous.

Maybe the team had switched off mentally. Momentum's a funny thing and when Leeds had it in the second half, it was very difficult for Bristol to step it up again.

There was no shortage of chances in the second half. On many occasions, the Leeds line was threatened but the ball was turned over as the final pass was forced when maybe taking the tackle and recycling the ball was a better option. If just one of those chances had been taken, the fightback would have been snuffed out.

I thought Felipe had a great game in his first start of the season. Phil Christophers seems to get better week on week. David Rees and Spencer Brown are both looking threatening and are both getting lots of ball.

The pack looked very good in the first half but they'll be furious at they way they were manhandled at times in the second half

The bottom line is that we won. A valuable lesson could have been learned today in that a side is never out of a match. We're 5th in the league going into the European games. That's got to give cause for optimism.

I just wish we wouldn't leave matches in the balance until the final minute!