Jonno leads the way against Leeds

Leeds at WR
By Ian Birks
September 17 2004

After a disappointing start to the season in Stockport a week earlier, expectation was high for the Tigers faithful who gathered at Welford Road. The fear, or from the view point of the Tigers fans, hope, was that today's opposition would to suffer a backlash from defeat at the hands of Sale Sharks.

At last, Leicester were on home turf with a fully fit and rested squad, not to mention the home debut of Seru Rabeni and the prospect of seeing up to three Tuilagi's on the field at the same time sometime before the end of the season!
The Leicester pack took the game to the visitors from early on, and Leeds were outgunned in the scrum and line-out alike in a game that saw tries from Martin Johnson, new boy, Rabeni, Harry Ellis and Henry Tuilagi plus a penalty try.
In reply, Leeds capitalised on a long speculative kick down field that was chased and dotted down by Tykes winger Tom Biggs and a late consolation try in the last few minutes from Jon Dunbar. Gordon Ross kicked a further 10 points to add to the Leeds tally.
Andy Goode started the Tigers scoring with a penalty conversion from about 52 metres out in the second minute of play. He added to is personal total in the 27th minute, kicking a simpler penalty as well as converting first half tries from Martin Johnson and Rabeni. By the end of the first half, Leeds had only managed to take 3 points from a Ross penalty.
The usual second half onslaught from Tigers following the restart did not materialise and it was Leeds who took advantage of a sluggish looking Leicester defence when he successfully chased down a long down-field kick after just 3 minutes. The only man back for Leicester, Murphy, was fooled by the bounce of the ball and Biggs did well to get downward pressure on the ball for the points.
	A conversion from Ross was swiftly followed by yet another penalty from Goode brining the score to 23-10. From then on, things went from bad to worse for Leeds when the Tykes lock, Chris Murphy was sent to the bin in the 53rd minute of play. Ellis's try came from the resulting scrum and Goode converted.
Just four minutes later, the home side was awarded a penalty try when referee Barnes judged that Leeds had deliberately pulled down the maul within try scoring distance of their own line. Ross kicked another penalty for Leeds, but Tuilagi barged of the line for the fifth try of the afternoon.
	The consolation try for Leeds came late in injury time, much to Jonno's annoyance, from replacement flanker, Dunbar.
Are Tigers back to their formidable best? No, not yet. There was a clear improvement from the previous week, but Leicester being Leicester will take the win and each player will look to improving their own game for the trip to London Irish.