Time to stop Charlie Boy!

Always influential.
By apb
October 20 2010

So after a frankly breathtaking first-half performance against Stade, and a second half that while not living up to the earlier standard was still full of fast movement, guile and power, we turn back to the Premiership with the visit to Headingley of our local rivals Sale.

In an earlier time, the word “rivals” would have been a bit laughable. Sale were always in the top third of the table for many years, famously being the first club to both top the table at the end of the season and win the play-off to take the actual trophy. With the cash to back up a recruitment policy that saw them with the highest proportion of current England internationals outside of the East Midlands, to consider Sale as close rivals of Leeds was like saying Scafell Pike is only a bit smaller than Killimanjaro.

Not so this term. Rivals is most definitely what we are, because while we cannot claim to have turned the tables completely this season, there is no doubt that there are some things that have reversed. Sale have slumped in the pecking order recently, narrowly avoiding relegation last time round, and it is Leeds that has more players in the Elite Player Squad. That’s all very well, but we are still bottom of the table, no wins to our name, and, until last Sunday, I wasn’t sure whether there was a win in this team at all. But Sunday’s match against the men in pink changed all that. On Sunday they looked like a team that had the wherewithall to challenge the top teams in Europe. Challenging is one thing, winning matches is another, and if Leeds are to lose the tag of “plucky losers” and the ghastly repetition of opposition fans comiserating with us while waltzing off with the points, then a win on Friday night is a must.

But how to win against Sale? We haven't been that good at it over the years, with only last years remarkable away win at Edgley (where their mud suited us better than our mud) to show for it in innumerable encounters. Well, its pretty straightforward actually - Stop Charlie. When on his game the Sale fly-half is supreme, with seemingly aeons of thinking time on the ball and a masterful kicking game, the boy knows how to control a match. We must close down that think time; we must hound him and hunt him with the ball in his hand. And after Sunday's first-half performance, when in possession we must play with the speed and confidence that that game must surely have given us. To run, catch, pass, kick, chase, make breaks and build momentum. All that was on show on Sunday, and we all want to see it again on Friday night.

On that basis, I would keep the team largely unchanged for Friday, with the one debating point being the inclusion of a recognised kicker. The obvious choice here is for Hinton to come in at full-back to take the kicking duties, and that's who I'd go for, moving Stephenson to the wing and dropping Tadulala to the bench. Tempting though it might be to change the pack, I would stick with the Sunday starters – certainly a front row battle between Gomez and Sheridan would be worth the ticket money on its own, and Hardy seems to have come on well this term. We have a bench full of impact and I believe Leeds should start favourites for the win. Certainly if Backy's target of a top six place is to be realised, we should be making a move up the table from now.

Sunday's match against Stade was a great advert for the game at Leeds. For once the curse of the TV cameras didn't hit us. Although we got nothing from that game, I haven't left Headingley with quite such a happy outlook – win, lose or draw – for a considerable time, and hopefully the viewers of Mr. Murdoch's money making machine will have cottoned on to that positive vibe and finally come on down to sample the game live and in the flesh.

Lets hope they all – and we all – enjoy a majestic win for Leeds! Lets go get 'em boys!

Time to stop Charlie Boy!

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

Date: 20/10/2010 05:52

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