Last week at Headingley our top try scorer was voted Supporters Player of the year. Our most exciting attacking player was voted Players Player of the Year. Our outstanding colt won the Academy Best Player. All very nice and predictable - no surprises there then? Well er no except.....
We have scored a barrow load of tries this season. 9 try-scoring bonus points helped us get ahead of Bristol despite the fact that Bris actually won more games than us. Ok so why am I a bit surprised? Well for me the big plus this season has been the improvement in our forward play. Not just an improvement but also the quality of the new forwards who joined us this season, either permanently or on loan. Tussac, Harris, Imiolek and Currie have all exceeded my expectations. This, combined with extra coaching imput from Tommy McGee has seen our set scrummaging come on in leaps and bounds. The return to fitness and form of Scott Freer has just been a bonus.
Green, Smith and Myerscough have all brought some physicality to our open play as well as set piece solidarity. Rob Baldwin did not take long to get up to the required fitness and has been a regular in the 6 shirt since young Beck got injured. looking forward we have already signed another big lock in Hannay. If the rumour that Currie and Imiolek are staying next season then we will have a formidable set of forwards.
Our backs may score all the tries and grab all the glory but if we are to get out of the Championship anytime soon then it will be our forwards who have the biggest say in when we do that. Next season anyone?
Aggghhhh. Please STOP the rumours re Currie - it's true. He is staying - it was announced on Thursday and it's been mentioned about 10 times since.
Anyhow - I agree. Decent ball from the forwards are supplying the backs. And don't worry about Bris winning one more game - we got more BPs. Have you seen the Bris board? They want BPs to stop.
It's a bit disingenuous to suggest that we only voted for backs because they score the points or look good in attack. I voted for a back because they give me a sense of comfort in both attack and defence and get the team moving forward. In other words, that they lead the team to where I want them to be. Forwards can do that too, but this year was the first time in a while that I've seen a back line run onto the ball.
We have scrum halves, centres, wings and full backs who look like they play together and want to attack - it's been a while since I could say that.
All bodes very well for next season, when I think it will be a competition between Leeds and Bristol for the promotion spot.
I hope Bris suffer from the recruitment turmoil that we've had in the past and we go up, but let's finish this season first.
Suffering on the Leeds and Yorkshire roller-coaster since 2001
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