Battle of the Drop - Part 1

Hooper's return
By Mark Cotton
December 31 2009

With what seems like little time to draw breath after Sunday’s epic in the North East Leeds face arguably their biggest match of the season thus far with the visit of Bath. Saturday’s match could well be billed as “The Battle of the Drop, Pt.1”, with both teams are struggling at the foot of the table, arguably for different reasons.

Bath’s pre-season was tumultuous following the fallout of an end-of-season do in London, which resulted in four of the senior pro’s leaving the club in bitter circumstances. Add to this long term injuries to last season’s star Butch James, and the prodigal son Ollie Barkley and it’s not difficult to see why they have struggled. As we know only too well Leeds’ re-entry to the Premiership was not helped by visa problems and recruitment issues.

Both sides go into the New Year with decent wins under their belts; Bath comfortably dispatched local rivals Gloucester last week, whilst the ‘Negies took a well-deserved win in appalling conditions at Newcastle and survived an absolute battering in the final stages of the match to boot. Leeds are showing a bit of decent form at the moment and are gradually removing the lapses in concentration which has cost them dear to date. In fact if they beat their visitors this week then they will swap places at the bottom and possibly put the frighteners on 10^th placed Worcester, too.

So, can Leeds get a much-needed home win on Saturday to get away from bottom place? Looking at the Bath side it is difficult to see why they are in the position they are in. A front row featuring current England internationals Bell and Mears (with arguably the best prop Flatman shamefully overlooked by the England selectors during the autumn), our old skipper Stuart Hooper looking to lock horns with current supremo Marco Wentzl, and a set of classy backs. For whatever reason though they have failed to consistently click as a unit and hopefully this will be the case on Saturday. Leeds should be able to go into the game picking from virtually a full squad. The only selection doubt would appear to be Cieron Thomas at 10, who has pulled up early in both the last matches. However it would be fair to say that the latest kid on the block Joe Ford has slotted in to the fly-half role with an ease which belies his tender years. The forwards are playing as a unit and have not really been bested since Leicester and have been boosted by the return of ‘Alfred the Great’ and ‘Shrek’ (messrs To’oala and Fourie respectively). After the battle of Kingston Park there must be an abundance of confidence and self-belief throughout the squad, something that perhaps has been missing from our visitors. Provided our coaching staff have identified and planned for perceived weaknesses in the Bath side then, yes, a win is on the cards. With so much at stake it ain’t going to be pretty but I think that Leeds will shade it by a score and with the win start to chart the course for Premiership survival and give us long suffering fans a Happy New Year!

Battle of the Drop - Part 1

Posted by: TykesRugby.co.uk (IP Logged)

Date: 31/12/2009 10:12

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