With the wind at his back a perfect Di Bernardo kick was ignored by the Falcons defence,the lateral bounce found it's way to Blackett who sprinted between the posts for the record breaking try.

The Falcons woke up and targeting the inside channels, powerful forward play led by Haymans and Ward saw them move relentlessly up field. Whenever the ball was moved to the backs it was run back to the forwards who recycled quickly. Despite good tackling Leeds were soon camped in their own 22 and a strong pirouette from Wilkinson saw him evade Satalas tackle, and with the tricky conversion missed, the score was 7-5. Further strong forward play caused a collapsed scrum and the Falcons led 8-7.

Leeds are learning the hard way and whereeas in the past they have often conceded penalties tonight they kept their heads and it was the Falcons that made the mistakes. Leeds kicked for the most part sensibly but they came closest to scoring when Hinton joined the line ,made a good break,off loaded to Biggs who had the ball knocked from his hands with the try line beckoning.

It was the Falcons who were now forced to defend and cracks started to appear in the forwards at the set piece. 2 penalties were conceded which Di Bernado converted to take the score to 13-8 at half time.

To seasoned Leeds watchers the consensus was with the wind in their faces in the 2nd half the lead would not be enough, and yet again, with the wretched 2nd half performance against Bristol fresh in the memory, it would be the opposistion who troubled the scoreboard.

The forwards silenced the doubters and from the restart drove into the Falcons. Biggs again created something from nothing and was only brought to ground by Wilkinson's last chance tackle. Storming forward runs caused the Falcons to concede a further converted penalty. At 16-8 the faithful were starting to dream and with Wilkinson oddly not opting to use the wind and kick for territory it was left to the Falcon's forwards to add the points. A kickable penalty was spurned and from the chosen scrum Carl Haymans scored. Wilkinson converted and Leeds stood one point ahead.

On the back of a gruelling game last Sunday the injury tally began to mount and when MacDonald went off there were no more front row substitutes. Scrums became uncontested and this played into Leed's hands with less than 10 minutes to go. Sensible pick and drives took them into the Falcon's 22 and when they did eventually knock on, it left the opposition no time to mount a serious challenge.

The 8900 crowd saw G.P rugby at it's best and the powers that be must have looked on and thought 'This is what we planned for Headingley Carnegie'. Sadly although it is not impossible to avoid relegation, it is a little too late and foundations need to be laid now for 2 years time. The learning curve has been a little too steep but last night the team showed it can compete in the G.P . There was outstanding work from MacDonald,Fourie,Myall,Blackett and the Bath bound Hooper and it was only Satala who looked out of his depth in the company of the 5 internationals in the opposition team.

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