Such joy (and, dare I say, relief) there was that we had finally done what we had been edging towards that I rather naively assumed that Easter Sunday's game would be a celebration of champagne rugby – after all, the pressure was off for both Leeds and Newbury, so freedom of expression in the play of both teams was possible. And with the annihilation of Manchester in midweek, it was looking good for a mega-tryfest.

It was a nice, bright, sunny day, and the game got under way well, but after five minutes of play and still no score, the natives were already getting a bit restless. How come we've not secured the bonus yet? The first try came courtesy of JD, being on the shoulder of Blackie who popped him a neat pass and a simple run in for the big number six. Alberto got the extras from the touchline and we were under way. Next over the line was Penders, finishing off a good forwards-oriented score, with ADB again getting the extras.

Newbury were no mugs though, and time after time they made a team of champions look decidedly ordinary – I thought a number of our forwards looked very tired and speculation was rife in our corner of the South Stand that maybe it was an exercise dreamed up by the conditioning coaches to play a match whilst already partially drained. (We later learned that this was most certainly not the case).

Heppy got the next score using those dancing feet of his to break through the cover, and although ADB didn't make the kick this time, it was 19-0 and the win was more or less assured on the 25 minute mark. The rest of the half was spent with the home side defending their line as Newbury put together more phases in ten minutes than Manchester had managed in 160+ minutes of rugby at Headingley this season. Defence was pretty resolute though, and the half time score was 19-0. Not even a bonus point yet!

After the equivalent of a stern talking to, the Carnegie boys were a bit more fired up in the second half, and Scott Barrow made a break to set up a forwards-grind from five metres out. With the Carnegie scrum dominant all afternoon, the pushover was on, but illegal tactics from the Newbury Blues (perversely wearing red!) was rightly punished by the ref. and a penalty try given. Seven easy points, and the bonus secured!

Leeds were now finally getting into their stride, and a couple of quick tries, score through fast hands and precision passing, allowed Blackie and Hints to get one each, ADB getting the conversion for Blackie's try but just missing with Hints', the score went to 38-0. Floodgates are about to open now, surely?

Newbury had other ideas, and good work from them, showing that as a team they were comfortably better than their already hopeless league position indicated, allowed them to exploit a breach in the Leeds defence, and a try and conversion stopped the nilling that was pretty much de rigeur in the home fans' minds. Minutes later, following some telegraphed passing in the Newbury twenty-two, Martin Nutt (as the official site informs me it was) latched on to a loose pass and hared the length of the pitch to score under the posts, dispite Hinton's valiant chase. Another seven for Newbury.

It was at this point that someone said to me "I'd like to see one of the fat lads on a run". From the restart Wine Gums duly obliged, and ball in hand looked for the nearest red shirt to flatten. And boy did he! This caused the mayhem in broken play that ensued, and with Brooky making his final Leeds appearance at Headingley, he scored a magnificent try in the corner.

With Danny Paul bursting through some minutes later from a blistering run that left the defence helpless, getting a trademark score, ADB converted to take the score to 50-17. Not the 100+ we'd hoped for but that'll have to do. Just to cap it all off, Brooky once again got over after taking another well timed pass from Blackie, and the final score was 57-14.

After the euphoria of the Manchester game, and the confirmation of the title, we were all perhaps a little too jubilant to accept anything other than a steam-rollering, and Newbury hadn't come all this way for that. They contributed to a game that left anyone with eyes to see that Leeds may well be champions, but they are not the finished article yet, and need to do some serious work to make next season in the GP a success.

But let's not be too hard on them. Putting fifty-plus points past any side is an achievement, and there was certainly never any doubt about the match result. Had anything been riding on the outcome (and the players in the long-room more or less admitted it was something of an anti-climax that there wasn't) then we may have seen them step up a gear or two. There is also the small matter of a Twickenham appearance to take into account, and it's possible that - subconciously at least - some players were ensuring they would be fit and ready for selection on April 18th.

This was a performance then, that would be worrying if it were the summit of Leeds' abilities. But it was not, and we can look forward to next week and indeed next season in the sure and certain knowledge that Leeds have more in the tank.

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