Leeds Tykes 2003-4: It Wasn't That Bad...

By Loosehead on 10/05/2004
May 18 2004

So that's it, its all over now for at least another 4 months. No more Rugby on weekends. No more getting our hopes up and our hearts broken for at least another 16 weeks. Saturdays will now be spent shopping while Sundays it'll be out with the lawnmowers!

So, what has our season been like? Before penning this piece I had a long hard think and recount of the games. I have been to all home and most of the away games. The only games I have missed were Glaws away (got married that day), Sarries on New Years Day (no trains running), Quins away (would have liked to have gone to the Stoop), Falcons and Ospreys away (I could have killed 2 birds with one stone!), and Toulouse away - this was not for the want of trying; I just couldn't persuade the wife to go for a long weekend in the South of France where I only required a few hours away to watch the Rugby, the rest could have been spent doing the usual other stuff, shopping, visiting the sights, etc.

So when looking back at the 2003/2004 season no doubt most will bemoan that it was not a good season. Compared to the last that's true, but it was marginally better than our first season, and when I think back it wasn't as bad as it might first appear; I know there were couple of dire performances, but it wasn't all bad. There were three things that made this an extraordinary season....

1. New Faces

To start with we had over 14 new players who joined the club before the start of the season, and this a lot of players to integrate into a club. Yes Bath also had similar number of players who joined them but most of the players who joined Bath had a lot of Zurich Premiership experience plus the experience of playing in other top leagues - the Super 12, Currie Cup, and Celtic League.

The players who joined us were (deliberately) younger and didn't have as much experience as other players; the likes of Clive Stuart-Smith who was 20, Tim Walsh 24, Colm Rigney 25. Also a lot of players didn't have the experience of playing in a competitive league; Aaron Persico, Colm Rigney again, these are all minor details I know and as professionals they did make the step up but it was a big learning curve. We have now got in place a group of talented young players that have a seasons ZP experience behind them as well as European Cup experience.

2. A New Style

The 2nd thing the team had to get used to was play a different brand of Rugby. Last season in some quarters we were branded a one dimensional side who relied on the boot of Braam van Straaten to score our points. Our back play last season was (some said) almost non existent.

But this year we can agree we have scored more tries. The backs have had their hands on the ball a lot more and with the backs we have that is something to behold. We needed to adapt more to a more fluid passing game rather than rely on the boot of BvS or his successor - if we didn't change then I think we would have really struggled to adapt. I think we have laid the foundations this season for a team that can now play multi style Rugby. We can pass along the back line. We can play it tight. We look to keep the ball alive more. This is something we only started to do this season and it will stand us in good stead for next season.

3. Injuries & International Call-Ups

We have suffered quite a few injuries this season to a lot of key and experienced players and with the RWC call up in the 1st half of the season we had academy lads on the bench for a number of games of the 31 games we have played this season.

Mike Shelley has only managed 18 of them, Mark Regan has played in 13 due to International call ups and injury and Gavin Kerr has only managed 6 games what with International call ups and injuries. This a lot of games that our 1st choice front row has been out and they have managed only 3 games together. THREE games! that is a lot of games to be without your first choice front row! We even had to call up Carl Hogg who retired last season such was the state of injuries we had!

Our second choice front row has not fared better either with injuries to Rawlinson, Powell and Holt at one time or another, so we have struggled here as well. We have had to rely on a 18 year old Academy Prop Michael Cusack to help out with the front row crisis we have had and he has done very well. Its a tough baptism of fire for any prop to play in the ZP, but its extraorinary for an eighteen year old to break into a premiership front-row, and he has held his own against some experienced tightheads.

As a Prop myself I can tell you that, like a good wine, we get better with age. How many 18 year old props can say they have played against the ZP's best and were not found wanting?

Tom Palmer only played 14 games and as our #1 Lock he was highly missed, but youngsters like Scott Morgan, Phil Murphy and Stu Hooper filled in admirably and did the club proud. Again in the Backrow we suffered when the likes of Popham and Persico were away on international duty and Colm Rigney missed 9 weeks though suspension (OK, so that was self-inflicted on his part, but it still left the club with a player unavailable for selection in a key area).

We've had the same problems with the half-backs. We have seen injuries to both our first choice scrumhalves within three weeks of the beginning of the season. Dickens has managed only 10 starts while Clive Stuart-Smith also only managed 10 games. Gordon Ross was away with Scotland until November, and when he returned we promptly lost Duncan Hodge for three months. Its the same with the rest of the backs. We were without a few due the World Cup, and as soon as they returned we lost others, Andre Snyman, Phil Christophers and David Rees all missed games due to injury.

So all in all considering the above I think we have done well. We won only 7 games, but we did score more tries than last season, and if I am right we even outscored Bath the table toppers on tries this year (although that may have changed sice the time of writing). While finishing eleventh is nothing to be satisfied about, it looks to me as if this was an extraordinary season with an extraordinary number of players unavailable at one time or another, and the style of play we are moving towards will bring dividends in the future.

Next Season

Some of us Old Forwards have bemoaned the lack of beef up-front. This has been noticably missing in 2003/2004 (injuries nothwithstanding) and PD has looked to address this problem by signing a number of experienced players who will bring some much needed bulk for next season. Players like Jon Dunbar, a 19 stone Flanker; Pierre Uys, an aggressive flanker in the mould of Corne Krige as a few Stormers fans have quoted me, plus PD likens him to Cammy Mather which is a very high compliment as we know what a phenomenal work rate Cammy has. A prop is still apparently to be announced; some say a South African tighthead and they don't breed 'em much bigger than that! Even the likes of Argentinian and French props are smaller by comparison in both height and weight. Lets hope its true!

The players we have signed to date are all fairly young. But the difference this year is that they all bar one have a wealth of top grade rugby behind them. Iain Balshaw is an England RWC winner, British Lion and has over 4 years ZP experience and still only 24. Chris Bell is an England u21 Grand Slam winner and has a number of appearances for Harlequins and is still only 21. Jon Dunbar, 19 stone flank forward with over 3 seasons ZP experience at Newcastle is still only 24. Pierre Uys, aged 28 with 2 years Super 12 experience, a number of appearances in the Currie Cup, and 1 full South Africa Cap. Chris Murphy has re-signed we know what a good player he is! still only 28 with a wealth of ZP experience, plus he comes back with a year of French Rugby under his belt and for a Lock Forward that is a baptism of fire. Mark McMillan is the exception to this, in that he has only played a limited number of games with Glasgow Warriors, but is the Scottish U21 scrum-half, and comes highly recommended from "our friend in the north", Cammy Mather!

There are a few others to come no doubt. The team will clearly have much more relevant experience than this year.

Then of course there is the Academy where we have seen the likes of Cusack, Stockdale, Doherty, Chester & Buchanan emerge this season and no doubt there are more jewels out there waiting for their time to arrive.

So as far as next season goes, I can say that we are still a young side but we have more experience for next season. We've made some astute signings, and whilst I don't predict trophies next year the club will do OK. In a couple more years Leeds Tykes will, I confidently predict, challenge for the games top honours in both England and Europe.