The season just gone was an unmitigated disaster for Leeds Carnegie and its supporters. Having promised so much the players delivered very little. Instead of a step up to the next level we were treated to more of the same and some that was worse than previously. So where did it all go wrong?
Much of the problem stemmed from mistakes by coaches and players but I would argue that certain key players left the club and were not adequately replaced. Certainly one Eirik Lund, who expressed a desire to play with his Euros brother, left the club when he was at the top of his game. As well as his lineout ball Eirik had a work ethic which included tackling, carrying and “enforcing”. The Leeds pack was a formidable unit when Eirik was in the engine room. The second departure which hit us hard was that of Andy Gommarsall. Andy brought a vast amount of experience with him when he joined the club. He also brought great leadership and decision-making skills with him. Scott Mathie came on in leaps and bounds under his tutelage. We thought that Mathie would be an adequate replacement for Andy this season – wrong! The third “one that got away” was Seru Rabeni. He wanted to stay at Leeds. The club dithered about a new contract. La Rochelle stepped in with the money. Seru signed for them. Leeds offered a contract – too late. Finally Joe Ford was advised that his future lay in Northampton and a promising, goal-kicking stand-off took the M1 south.
The second area where things went wrong was in the signing of new players. We were told that the board were making funds available. We were told that the players who signed would be of a quality that would allow the club to kick-on and prepare for Heineken Cup rugby. We heard, from a good source, that the club had signed Charlie Hodgson. For whatever reason Hodgson did not appear. The responsibility for signing new players, we are told, was down to Andy Key. When the Hodgson deal failed to materialise it appeared that Andy had no plan B. Was he so confident that CH would sign or was it that there were no 10’s of sufficient quality who could be persuaded to come to Yorkshire? Whatever the reason we ended up with Lachlan Mackay, a quality Aussie inside centre, playing at 10 – an experiment doomed to failure.
In part II we will take an in-depth look at the quality of the players who arrived at Headingley Carnegie last summer.
Oh Well! Part I
Posted by: TykesRugby.co.uk (IP Logged)
Date: 20/05/2011 07:46
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Ceiron Thomas was a bigger disaster than Mackay this season; we would have beaten Sale in that thrilling match on the telly if his confidence hadn't been so low.And as you say, Keysie had no Plan B, ie anyone who could kick !
against the head Ceiron Thomas was a bigger disaster than Mackay this season; !
I disagree about Mackay being a disaster. In my opinion he ia a very good rugby player in his correct position. I don't suppose it his fault he was asked to start at fly half, but in the centre, he looked as good as anybody in the backs.
I agree Haxby Fulton was a quality player when used in his best position - inside center, he had another injury prone season and never had a decent run in the team but he did look class at times.
farmertyke But he was last year....his confidence certainly took a Knock with the positional changes.
Agreed. He was instrumental in us staying up last year. But it was clear then he was a confidence player. The management didn't do him any favours with changing his position, and persisting so long when it was obvious to all it wasn't working
It seems that management and the captain had an effect in his confidence. As Mathie said I. The YEP there seems to be more finger pointing and blame in the camp this season. Adversity made us weaker this season, last year it made us stronger. There definitely seemed to be a them and us between forwards and backs, hopefully that will be irradiated over the summer.
I think your right there Rocky. From what i gather, there was no back line coach, and while the forwards were getting NB attention, with MW the focal point, the backs did their own thing, without any real direction.
Warren Fury had a one year contract, but perhaps he may be offered another, but the lad had a cruciate ligament op plus a shoulder op, so the poor man has had a lot to get over, which i'm sure he will.
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of the players who came in?! Promises to be a shorter article than this one.
