Trailfinders blown off course..
By Haxbytyke
October 5 2013
Leeds Carnegie kicked off their home campaign with a resounding victory against newly promoted Ealing Trailfinders, scoring 9 tries in the process.
It took only 3 minutes for Craig Hampson to supply Stevie McColl with a sublime reverse pass, and from 30 yards there was no stopping our man as he crossed by the posts. Alex Lozowski converted and then kicked a towering penalty from half way when the restart went straight into touch. Andy Hall kicked a 45 yard penalty to get the visitors on the scoreboard, but on 17 minutes McColl made a 60 yard break before handing on to Holmes. Although he was stopped the ball came back quickly and Hampson scampered over for another converted try.
Leeds almost scored again when McColl charged down a clearance kick but the bounce just evaded the Leeds player, but it hardly mattered as Leeds continued to score at a point a minute with another superb score. Lozowski created the space and sent McColl storming through and he expertly drew the full back before giving Josh Griffin an easy run in to score beneath the posts. The extras went on as well, and things went from bad to worse for the visitors when a replacement came on, and within 30 seconds was sent to the sin bin, taking a team hit for persistent infringing.
The game then got scrappy, but on the stroke of half time,Leeds pressed again, and Jacob Rowan was on hand to crash over. Lozowski did his bit, and the teams went in with Leeds leading by 31 points to 3.
It took a while for the second half to get going, and Leeds brought on a raft of replacements which interrupted the flow of the game, but on 59 minutes Leeds took a quick tap penalty close to the line, and Ryan Burrows forced his way over for another converted try. Shortly after Burrows went storming through again to create an overlap and though Lucock’s pass was knocked down it fell kindly for Jonah Holmes to pick up and race over from 30 yards. The visitors were in disarray, so much so they had 16 players on the field as they tried to restart.
McColl and Burrows were at it again as they made 60 yards between them before the visitors Anders Nilsson received a yellow card. He probably wasn’t too upset, as shortly before that he had been on the receiving end of a Ben Harris tackle and he didn’t look too sure of his bearings.
From a line out the Leeds forwards drove Joe Graham over for another try, and Ealing lost another player to injury to leave them with only 13 men on the field.Leeds took full advantage; Holmes made good ground stepping through two tackles before unloading to the supporting Lozowski who galloped 50 yards to cross the whitewash, although he blotted his perfect kicking record by pulling his conversion attempt wide.
Ealing tried one last attack, their scrum half chipping deep into the Leeds 22. Oli Goss marked the ball, took a quick tap and went searing through the midfield. Stevie was in support and as the full back approached, he kicked ahead and showing terrific dribbling skills he easily won the chase and scored beneath the crossbar. Lozowski converted, the ref. blew his whistle and Leeds had won by 64 points to 3.
So an excellent win, with some outstanding individual displays, but the opposition, sadly, looked totally out of their depth at this level. I cannot recall any pressure at all in the Leeds 22, and had our favourites not occasionally got carried away and thought about what was happening, they would have scored even more. Indeed if they drop as many restarts as they did tonight, against better opposition, they will surely be punished.
Having said that, you can only beat what is in front of you, and I have three contenders for man of the match, Buzz, Stevie, and Lozzer. The first two were like battering rams, making huge yards and creating havoc in the visitor’s defence, while young Alex, on his home debut chipped in with 24 points. He looks assured, confident, and is always looking for the gaps, plus he is not afraid to tackle. Oh, and his kicking wasn’t bad either. A tough choice, but I’m giving the bottle of pop to Alex Lozowski, a great first home game.
A crowd of 2,194 witnessed the event, but I’m sure all of us are hoping to see much more competitive games than this one in the remainder of the season.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:10:23:18:46:20 by Wildwillie .
Some brilliant work by the lads, Hampo's fleet of foot for the second try stood out. Burrows with his battering ram runs forward, Wee Stevie with his long range runs and football skills, Alex Lozowski (was there only one of him on the field?), he seemed to be everywhere, his kicking, his tackling, ball distribution... What a find he is! Only disappointment was that he failed to convert his own try.
Buzz, Stevie and Alex, all three should have the bubbly as MOM!
Yep, another good game from Lozzer, a young man for whom the future is very bright. If I was being uber picky I'd say that on 2 or 3 occasions he tried to go through a gap that wasn't there but hey, how refreshing to have a running fly half. His distribution was excellent and he always seems to make the right pass at the right time, incredible for such a young lad.
Stevie and Buzz look like the finished article to me, Premiersip quality both of them.
Talking of centres when I lived in London I saw Lozzer's dad play quite often for Wasps but as the stand off at the time was Mr R Andrew he spent most of time imitating Joddrell Bank i.e. tracking flying objects.
If I had all the money I've spent on drink ..... I'd spend it on drink.
Quote:IanB58
The point about a running 10 is that although sometimes he may go for gaps that aren't there he keeps the defence honest - they know he is a threat and have to cover him.
But you also need to mix it up a bit, the defence can get too honest if they know he'll always run rather than kick.
Maybe it was just the opposition last night that led to him always running it, but even they figured out that they didn't need to cover chips over the top/through balls/down field punts.
Still, a strong performance - and nobody has mentioned his tackling which was superb. Really got stuck in, at times was Blackett-esque in his tackle, jump up, tackle again approach. Must be his age or something
Still a Tyke - whatever the name!
All of this is by way of commenting on our performance.
It gave Loz a brilliant chance to show what he's all about - but do we really want him to be making so many tackles? I would think his tackle count is already above JF's in all the time that he was with us! He made too many attempted breaks last night - but that's the sort of experience he needs and last night was the exact time to be trying things out. His kicking is absolutely crucial if he can carry on like he has so far, I wonder when GH will get his place back. For the rest it becomes more and more obvious that Griffin is not a 12 and nor is Lucock. J Doc didn't get much of a chance but I was disappointed that we hadn't already played with a lot more pace and accuracy - if we had, Jonah and Stevie could have scored 4 tries each. I suspect Dave Doc would have known exactly what to do last night. Finally, our props are really looking the business these days. We must look after Twosacks until the business end of the season.
turf seemed to cut up bad again??
Full credit to Ealing who always looked to positive, attacking rugby throughout the game.
Leeds always looked comfortable, but will need to step it up a few gears as the season wears on.
Great job
We totally bullied them and executed the fancy stuff pretty well too.
Best performance I've seen from a Leeds 10 for ages, but don't want to put pressure on him too soon. He looks good.
I heard the pitch was fine for the Varsity game on Wednesday, but it wasn't fine once our big boys got scrummaging.
'whether or not it is clear to me, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.'
'whether or not it is clear to me, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.'