Middlesex Sevens - The Tykes Story


Diego scores...
By Timofe
August 18 2002

5am on a Saturday! What time is that for honest, law-abiding folk to be up and about? Never the less, after much bleary-eyed "blurghing" at the bathroom mirror we left for Headingley...

The Journey Down

Making Leeds in record time (maybe I should always drive to games at 6am?) we joined a small crowd of people waiting for the bus, which duly arrived at 6:40. Mike Bidgood from the Tykes management team made sure that everyone was on and we were away. After many miles of motorway madness we reached the M25 and duly turned right, towards the south west of London. There was still an hour or more to spare, so no worries. Just sit back and relax as we travelled around the M25 - or so I thought. After a short distance the coach turned off into London and we had a wonderful sightseeing tour of Watford, Ruislip, Harlington, Northolt and several other Middlesex towns on the way. This would have been fine, except by now we were getting rather close to tournament kick-off. Travelling on through early lunchtime London traffic we eventually found a sign to Twickenham and, sure enough, saw the stadium in the distance. By this time it was 11:45. We'd already missed two games - would we make the 12:10 Leeds kick-off? I was busy working out angry words to say if we did not. We left the bus at the side of the road and dashed into the stadium - Mike mentioning something about us meeting up at the Tykes marquee in the West Stand car park at the end of the day and then he'd take us on to where the bus was parked. In possibly the hottest day since the Middlesex Sevens began we sat down just in time to catch the end of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment (they must have really BIG regiment badges!) and Bath. The crowd was a great mix of supporters in the lower two tiers of the stands – the official attendance was around 25,000. The lack of a big replay screen was a bit of a disappointment, but the action on the pitch soon made up for it. There were many Tykes fans there, but we were by no way the largest group. We didn't feel like we were surrounded by London Irish on one side and Leicester on the other. No, not at all…. Leeds Tykes vs Bradford Bulls Nervous tension started to build as the Bath game ended and we waited patiently as the announcer introduced the next game. The Bulls had played a less than impressive game on Friday night. Surely they'd be so tired that we stood a great chance of beating them, even with our diminished side? With a roar (OK, a small round of applause) from the crowd the two teams took to the pitch. Bradford looked decidedly shaky - the referee blew his whistle many times for rules infringements - but they soon got the hang of it. Despite a try from Leeds it was obvious that the team were far from prepared for sevens play. Time after time we saw three or more Leeds players chasing the ball carrier, leaving huge gaps in defence, which Bradford duly exploited. It was schoolboy rugby at its worst. Maybe they were unprepared? Tykes, Rhinos and Colts were all playing together for the first time. Maybe they weren't sufficiently rested? The three Rhinos players had only travelled down that morning. Whatever the reason, they were poor. When we had the ball (which was rare), all too often there was no support player. There was one notable exception however. My Leeds Man of the Match award has to go to Diego Albanese. He was dynamic, supportive and just downright quick. Who was there at every breakdown? Elchu. This summer we have signed a star. Bradford won the game 24:5. If they had shown the form they displayed later in the tournament it would have been a lot higher. One Tykes fan pointed out at the end of the day that we had held Bradford to their narrowest point margin of any of their opponents. I am sorry to say that this was merely coincidence in my opinion. The rest of the day The most exciting game of the early session had to be London Irish taking Newcastle to 19:12 just before the final whistle, then Newcastle going over in the corner. Johnny Wilkinson stepped up to take the conversion as the crowd hushed. Would his steady boot level the scores and take us into the first golden try match? Sadly: no. He missed the conversion and Newcastle were relegated to the Plate competition. Wigan did take Sale into extra time with a 17:17 draw, but Sale ran in a golden try to clinch the game. The last game in the first round was Wasps against Leicester. Leicester lost 24:7. We didn't smile a bit. Honest. Well, maybe a little smirk… In the next round the Army played Bath and simply outclassed them. The Army were leaner, fitter, faster and wore tighter shirts than their West Country opponents. The best move of the game being a backward, one-handed reverse punt from the centre of the pitch to their winger who duly ran in for the try. The most anticipated game of the quarterfinals had to be the next one. Robbie versus Henry Paul as the Bulls played Gloucester. With a few England Sevens stars in their team Gloucester looked likely winners, but Bradford had found their form and won the game easily 42:12. In the following game the Irish beat Northampton comfortably - Nick Beal of Saints received a pounding as a number of hard tackles hit him. The Irish were close to a yellow card at several points during the game. In the semis Bradford's Costin laid the Army to rest with the worst off-the-ball infringement of the day. How he stayed on the pitch no one knew. Bradford won to much crowd dis-amusement. Wasps beat London Irish in the other semi to set up a Bradford / Wasps final. "Rugby Union versus Rugby League" as the announcer called it. While the two finalists had a breather we watched the Plate final - Newcastle versus the South Sea Island branch of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment. The Falcons creamed the 'Regiment 26:7 to take the curiously cup-shaped "plate". One nice moment was the insistence of the Newcastle team in being in the South Sea Islanders’ team photo. While we waited for the Final, there was a brief interlude of pitch entertainment. A chase, ending in what the announcer described as "nice tackle", resulted in a streaker being persuaded to allow the game to begin. (Editor's note: Ladies if you want to see the photos then email me!) The Final Bradford Bulls versus "London" Wasps: the League world club champions versus the core of the England Sevens team. Bradford's fitness and team play decided the game early. By half-time they were 21:0 up - a succession of tries skilfully crafted by all the players working together as a unit. Wasps were exhausted; Bradford were gaining form. By full time it was 42:14 and the Bulls were worthy champions. With the champions getting an automatic invitation to the following year's competition, there will have to be serious attempts by some teams to work on their Sevens play if Bradford are ever to be removed as winners. The journey home Having established earlier in the day that there was no Tykes marquee, (well none of us could find it!) we met as a group in the car park. After much indecision we decided to try to find the coach (and Mike) and duly headed off with the rest of the crowd towards the Stoop. Leeds fans acting like sheep - hmm… We found the coach eventually and piled on - all hot and tired after a long day's entertainment. The journey home was fast and uneventful. After dropping off some "Mally" person at Leeds railway station, we got to Headingley just after 10:30. All in all a good day out - same again next year? If you have anything you'd like to add, or a differing viewpoint of the day, then please comment on the messageboard or write an article descibing your day.