Boring, Boring, Leeds Carnegie

A spirited second half performance enabled Yorkshire Carnegie to turn around a 6-7 half-time deficit to register a five point win over a gutsy Rotherham side, meaning 5 out of 5 wins so far this season. When , in the 75th minute Carnegie scored their second lineout drive try to seal victory and five points, the cry of “boring, boring, Leeds Carnegie” was heard in the Rotherham shed – but were they right?

The big match in town was the sold-out Rotherham United versus Newcastle United encounter, surprisingly kicking off at exactly the same time. This meant getting there early to avoid traffic and parking problems and also resulted in a lower than normal crowd, as I am sure many Millers fans are also Titans fans. The pitch was in perfect order, in spite of recent rains, in fact good enough to play cricket on IMHO. I would much rather scrum at Clifton Lane than Headingley – perhaps the Roth groundsman should be up for an award?

The first half was a tense affair, as always at Clifton Lane in my experience. Carnegie started the better of the two teams and registered a penalty and then a drop goal. But when Joe Ford unluckily hit the post in an attempt to make it 9 -0 , the tide turned. Roth spirits rose and their ex-Carnegie centre Joe Barker got a try. Then they missed a penalty meaning 7-6 to Roth at half-time.

It was hard to nail what was not quite right in the Carnegie performance. No-one was doing anything wrong, but there was a lack of creativity meaning we could not impose our game on the home side. I would like to commend the Clifton Road Tannoy system, in that it is very clear and loud. Except possibly that the announcer cannot bring himself to say “Yorkshire” Carnegie without getting such a lump in his throat that he gives up.

Back to the game – the second half started with much more energy from the away side. Within three minutes Kirsty scored under the posts following adventurous handling between Lucock, Johan and Gray. Joe converted then added a penalty; thus 16 – 7. Warren Seals then came on to play centre for, a presumably injured, Pistol Pete Lucock. Shortly afterwards we drove over a lineout in the right hand corner, with Joe scoring a difficult conversion. So 23 – 7 and we were looking comfortable, right? Of course Carnegie don’t do comfortable so a misplaced grubber from Alex Davies (who otherwise had an excellent match) gifted James Sanderson an easy run-in to the tryline for the home team. It was 23 – 14 and all sorts of bench-emptying changes took place over the next few minutes that a simple Almo could not follow.

Next a Carnegie line-out drive on the left, an offload to the backs and Gray got over near the posts. 30 – 14 and some breathing space? No chance! The best try of the match followed, Rotherham scoring in the right hand corner with an impressive backs move, and their 10, Will Robinson, added the extras with a sideline conversion using a sort of left-handed Sinfield technique.

So, getting back to the headline, this is where Yorkshire Carnegie steel and toughness shines through. Just as Titans were hoping for a reward from the game we attacked on the right. A line-out drive looked to have succeeded but the referee thought not. No penalty try or yellow card, but a penalty to YC. We kick to touch and drive over at the second (and presumably boring at this stage) attempt. Job finally done at 37 – 21.

So are we boring? If winning every week is boring – bring it on!