U21's First half blitz sinks Leeds

By Ian and Ali
September 23 2003

Opposition: Leeds U21
Venue: Welford Road
Date: 22 Sep 03
Attendance: Estimated 350

By Ian & Ali

First half

Two utterly contrasting halves were the main feature of this U21’s fixture against Leeds at Welford Road. The final score only serving to reflect the dominance of the Tigers in the first half.

Leicester started the game strongly with a penalty in the 5th minute by new signing Ross Broadfoot swiftly followed by another in the 7th . The Tigers U21 pack dominated the first half driving through Leeds’ lines time after time. With Matthew Stockdale in the bin for killing the ball in the 17th., the Luke Abraham took advantage of a 14-man Leeds side to score a try in the 21sr minute. Broadfoot’s conversion attempt only stopped by the left-hand upright.

Two Tigers notable for their power play during the first half: winger No14 Yomi made two electrifying runs, first down the right wing using his considerable strength handing off the Leeds tacklers, then through the mid-field ten minutes from time. Hipkiss also made good ground finding his way through the midfield on a couple of occasions.

The Leicester pack was particularly dominant during the first half, driving the Leeds pack towards their own line with ease. The only noticeable weakness from the Tigers point of view during the first half was that the final pass failed to go to hand on the Tigers left wing. Other than that, Leicester dominated the scrum, lineout and open play.

5minutes Tigers No10 Broadfoot Pen 3-0

7minutes Tigers No10 Broadfoot Pen 6-0

16minutes Leeds No7 Stockdale Sin Bin

17minutes Tigers No10 Broadfoot Pen 9-0

21minutes Tigers Try No8 Abraham 14-0

21 minutes Sub Tigers No18 Dumbleton on for No5 Hamilton

38minutes Tigers Try No7 Clarke 19-0

39 minutes No10 Broadfoot 21-0

Second Half

The pep talk in the Leeds changing room must have been one of those inspirational masterpieces because it was all Leeds for the vast majority of the second half. The visitors had the lions share possession and territory throughout the second half, with Leicester struggling to get out of their half in what turned out to be a scrappy 45 minutes.

An excellent clean break through the middle by the Leeds stand-off, Buck almost saw the visitors through to the Tigers lines in the 6th minute.

After constant pressure from the whistle, a Leeds throw-in on the left touch in the17th minute saw the ball moved swiftly to right 15m channel followed to a drive over the Tigers line which was held up by the powerful Leicester pack. More pressure a few moments later saw a second rolling maul go over the Tigers line, but again was held up. In the 21st minute a clean break from the half way line by Leeds fullback, Daplyn, saw a promising move ending with a forward pass less than 10m metres from the try line.

It took Tigers over half an hour to get into the Leeds half, only to be pushed back by some sound kicking from Leeds. A cheeky 37th minute quick throw almost resulted in a try on the right wing for Leicester, but the winger just ran out of room on the far touch line.

Despite having some 70% of possession and 90% of territory, Leeds failed to score in the second half. The only score came in the 5th minutes of added time when Tigers capitalized on poor handling in the mid-field by Leeds to hack through, chase then follow up with a second kick through to get a last minute try, scored and converted for Tigers by Ross Broadfoot.

Final score 28-0

Sub from kickoff Tigers No18 Brewer on for No8 Abraham

Sub from kickoff Tigers No20 Glitherow on for No13 Dodge

Sub from kickoff Tigers {No number} Baxter no number for No14 Akinyemi

10 minutes Sub Tigers {No number} Montague on for No7 Clarke blood bin

10 minutes Sub Leeds No17 Webber on for No2 Boden

24 minutes Sub Leeds No21 Dale on for No14 Biggs

24 minutes Sub Leeds No20 Featherstone for No10 Buck

24 minutes Sub Leeds No18 Biader on for No1 Dodgson

24 minutes Sub Tigers Clarke return from blood bin

33 minutes Sub Tigers No22 Sayer on for No12 Hipkiss

33 minutes Sub Tigers {No number} {No name on Team sheet} on for No15 Taylor

35 minutes Sub Leeds No1 Dodgson on for No4 Challinor

42 minutes Sub Tigers {No number} Montague on for No4 Cooke

Teams:

Tigers

1Webster, 2 Friswell, 3 Hampson,4 Cooke, 5 Hamilton, 6 Raven, 7 Clarke, 8 Abraham, 9 Jackson, 10 Broadfoot, 11 Ajuwa, 12 Hipkiss, 13 Dodge, 14 Akinyemi, 15 Talor

Bench
Loney, Shea, Dumbleton, Brewer, Glitherow, Wyles, Sayer, Montague, Baxter

Leeds:

1 Dodgson, 2 Boden, 3 Brown, 4 Challinor, 5 Marshall, 6 Enston, 7 Stockdale, 8 Johnston, 9 Barry, 10 Buck, 11 Hamsey, 12 Buchanan, 13 Rocl, 14 Biggs, 15 Daplyn

Bench
Nutall, Webber, Biader, Neilson, Featherstone, Dale