Leeds Shock League Leaders!
Best game for Leeds.
By PorthosTyke
September 21 2011
"These are strange times, Graeme, strange times." I observed to the chap behind the bar in Arcadia on Sunday afternoon. Strange, because I had just witnessed Leeds win a rugby match, something that has not exactlybeen a common occurrence recently. I badly needed beer to steady the somewhat frayed nerves. Happily, Graeme obliged.
A win for Leeds was always important in this match. In opposition was a Bristol team including some suitably gnarled forwards and some young enthusiastic backs with unusual hairstyles. Bristol also included a Leeds old boy, Jon Goodridge at full back. Jaffa is clearly a popular player down Bristol way, with one of his colleagues having died his hair to match the orange one's skin tones.
The start was delayed by almost ten minutes, presumably to allow the large crowd to enter safely. The new slim-line Terry the Tyke did his best to keep the crowd entertained, but there was sadly no time for any dwarf throwing. AramisTyke, who is on the short side, was glad of this.
Referee Davey started the match and almost immediately he lost patience with Bristol and Leeds had a kickable penalty. Ford kicked it, and Leeds were 3-0 up with two minutes gone. Bristol were quickly into the Leeds half after the restart, and managed a catch and drive that went fully 20 metres before appearing to be pulled down. Davey penalised Leeds and Roberts kicked the penalty to even things up at 3-3.
Bristol were straight back at Leeds from the restart, and deployed the catch and drive to good effect. The first of several long and tedious attempts to have a scrum slowed things down, but Bristol steadily advanced down field until another catch and drive put Johnson over for the try. Roberts missed the easy kick, so it was 3-8 with ten minutes gone.
For the next few minutes the play was between the 22s, with both sides preferring to hoof possession away rather than having a run. The scrums were a problem for the talkative Mr Davey, who appeared to resort to penalising each side in turn. Leeds looked promising when they decided to run the ball, with Wilson and Thornley both making breaks, but most of the time Ford preferred to deploy the boot.
Bristol's backs also made the most of their limited chances to have a run, but the Leeds defence, with Stephenson to the fore, was always up to stopping them. Time and again a Bristol back looked up to get a face full of Stephenson followed swiftly by a whack from Thornley or Barker.
Eventually, Mr Davey decided to end yet another scrum shambles (during which I admit I had started to read the Rugby Paper- good result for Leos) with a kickable penalty for Bristol. Roberts made the most of it, and Bristol were 11-3 to the good with a few minutes left in the first half.
The first half petered out with more kicking whiff whaff between the backs while the forwards huddled in the centre of the field, awaiting developments. The half ended, inevitably, with another shambolic scrum (this time it was Bristol's turn for the penalty) before Mr Davey became bored and blew the whistle.
Disappointingly, there was no dwarf throwing at half time. Someone should really have a word.
The second half started with astonishing scenes as a scrum stayed up, and the ball was out quickly. Hampson managed a break and caught Bristol out, who were the victims of the first offside decision of the game. Leeds hoofed the ball into the Bristol 22, and were firmly on the attack.
The Tykes decided to take Bristol one at their (only) own game with a catch and drive. The maul was pulled down, Leeds got a penalty and kicked to the corner. The line out was taken cleanly, the maul started and was pulled down again. Leeds were awarded another penalty. At the third time of asking, the ball was taken cleanly again but lost and Bristol managed to clear. Stephenson ran the ball back but knocked on, and there was a break for another scrum. After the usual shambles, Bristol got the ball, but an excellent tackle from Stephenson gave the turnover. Leeds kicked over the top, but the kicker was taken out, giving Ford another penalty chance. Over it went, and Leeds were back in it at 6-11.
More whiff whaff ensued, but Bristol did seem to be tiring. Every break in play saw several of their players down on their knees for treatment or (in the case of the wingers) summoning hairdressers. Leeds still looked much better when they decided to run the ball and it even appeared that Ford might be cottoning on to the idea of chucking the ball to the bloke stood next to him.
It was just like the old days midway through the half with the expected substitutions starting. Leeds introduced Shaw for Hampson, Hemingway for Denton, and Richards for McColl. Phil Davies would have been proud.
With fifteen to go, Bristol (benefiting from their ability to throw somewhat lateral passes) managed their best attack since the early stages of the match. But scrums on the Leeds five metre line were driven back and the Leeds defence held firm. This was at the cost of a knock for Titts who was replaced by Nilsen.
It shows that things have changed at Leeds that it was the 27th minute of the second half before we were treated to a box kick from Shaw. The Bristol winger (who was not nearly as good as he thought he was) pounced on the ball and made to side-step Stephenson. Unimpressed, Stevo smacked the Bristolian, who was penalised for holding on. Ford kicked again and at 9-11 with 12 to go the crowd suddenly realised that Leeds could actually win this.
Leeds realised it too, and the whole team suddenly looked more confident. It was almost as case of when, not if, Ford would drop the goal to take the lead. "Injuries" to the Bristol players meant it was a little while, and there was a brief pause for Thornley to smash Jaffa into the middle of next week after he fielded a kick, but it was on the 37th minute that Leeds had a scrum just outside the Bristol 22.
It was Leeds turn for the free kick, something that irritated a Bristol forward, and resulted in Leeds getting that little bit closer. A couple of phases got the ball to midfield, where swift work from Shaw, along with blocks from Hemingway and Pendlebury gave Ford the time to slot the goal. 12-11, and two minutes on the clock.
Bristol tried the short kick off, but Leeds took the ball. Now, what was needed here was some Rotherham-style rumbling the ball around for five minutes or so. But the Tykes don't like to win easily, and decided to fling it around a bit. An interesting choice, given that at this point the heavens opened.
Bristol had one last chance with a Leeds player apparently being penalised for throwing the ball out. Inexplicably, our old mate the Bristol winger decided to take a tap rather than let Roberts have a go at the very kickable penalty. The ball was lost, and Ford kicked the ball down to Hyde Park Corner to end the game. Leeds had won by the smallest margin, 12-11.
Stephenson was justifiably man of the match. The official attendance was announced as 2599, which presumably included about 1000 sat on the South Stand roof.
All things considered, a good win done the hard way against a team who had made much of the early running in the Championship. Now it's off to Penzance!
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:09:27:05:54:08 by Wildwillie.
"Whiff whaff"? - An interesting interpretation of one of rugby's finer art forms, the kicking game.
can only assume the official attendance includes all the junior season tickets they've given away to all the schoolkids in North Yorkshire.....
Suffering on the Leeds and Yorkshire roller-coaster since 2001