Stumbling on together!
By Wildwillie
April 21 2013
We entered the stadium as the sun shone down on the lush Headingley turf. I wondered how the afternoon would pan out. Could Leeds win and secure a play-off spot? More importantly who was going to advise the match officials of the rules of the game now that our resident expert was frolicking in distant Antipodean lands! Well I need not have worried as a Nottingham fan (from here on called the Outlaw) in the Paddock kindly took on the role .....
The match started with Leeds playing towards the new stand with a light breeze behind the lads. Much early possession was evident and the pressure finally produced a kickable penalty. The usually reliable Joe Ford took an age to set the ball up prompting the Outlaw to advise the ref that "you could boil an egg in that minute". Joe missed the kick but we continued to hog the ball and Joe knocked over three penalties to get the scoreboard ticking over.
For twenty minutes we enjoyed total domination and the backs started to put some serious moves together. McColl and Griffin both threatened to score before the Outlaw asked, quite reasonably imho, "Can we have the ball please, we have driven 80 miles to get here?" . The Outlaw invited the touch judge to "get involved. If you are just watching then you owe me £17!" The Nottingham lads then decided to piddle on our bonfire and, in their first serious excursion into our 22, scored out wide. With no extras the scoreboard took on an ominous look. From 95% of the possession and territory we took in a slender 4 point lead at half-time. The dreaded HT teamtalk was still to come.....
At this point I had a nasty sinking feeling. It got worse when Wee Stevie, our most potent attacker, went off injured early in the second half.The lads , howevr, went on and did something quite amazing. They dominated the scrummaging. Total world domination was in our grasp. The visiting pack was shunted backwards at virually every scrum and Jake took this option at every opportunity. A penalty try was the inevitable outcome. Was I dreaming? 16-5 and we were heading for the play-offs.
The Notts pack was penalised again with the resulting yellow card. Young Currie came on and crossed the whitewash near the sticks. Joe converted and we started to relax. Big mistake! The visitors made a rare sortie into our 22 and...scored again. The sinner returned and...scored again! 23-19 with 5 minutes left.
Word filtered down from the north via Tw*tter that Bris were winning at KP. The lads threw caution, and the play-offs, to the wind. An attempted interception in front of the South Stand saw the visitors racing through our defence. For once they failed to score and we came back strongly. Burdon touched down, Joe converted and we were two scores in front again. Nottingham scored a fourth to secure an lbp and a tbp but the result was no longer in doubt.
Another epic ride on the Leeds rollercoaster. Into the play-offs. We have a puncher's chance! Two more games to enjoy. Can life get any better than this?
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:04:29:06:49:53 by Wildwillie .
I never thought that game would be anything else. As soon as we didn't capitalise on all that early pressure, I knew we would make a meal of it.
However, the fact we made the play-offs, and are the under-dogs, means anything could happen!
Well played boys, you are a close, tight little band which is what we want at HC, no more journeymen!
Zandra YaPoI
YaPoI - Yorkshire and Proud of It
'proficiscor in una'
Top bloke
is it def that he is out for the season? massive loss if so. he is the one who could do something out of nothing
time for CG to step up
Really enjoyed albeit they put us through the ringer as usual.
McColl outstanding, but Chris Walker was good and Green was beastly in a good way.
Bristol have proven that the Budgies are not unbeatable. A determined win at Headingley on the 6th May then brick wall time in the arctic.
Up the Carnegie TYKES !
him back fit will be like a new signing. i rate him highly
Can't give any further update.
Up the Carnegie TYKES !