By Andrew Pickard
February 15 2010
We arrived at the ground to find both ends of the pitch roped off, looking more like a ploughed field than a rugby pitch; elsewhere were large patches of sand, it was suggested that Scarborough beach had been re-located, this was denied by the locals, due to the absence of donkey droppings, or words to that effect.
Having arrived very early, we were able to stand in a very similar position to that which we occupy at Welford Road. The warm up found Thomas practicing kick-offs, most of which seemed to go straight into touch, so it was a surprise when the kick-off didn’t, instead it failed to go ten yards, and so set the tone for an error strewn game, a later kick-off did go out on the full.
So 30 seconds in and we get the first scrum, and another trend was set for the match, that of Tigers scrum doing impressions of the Italian army, it did at least give us a chance to see how Ben Youngs copes when his armchair is taken away, and it has to be said he didn’t fall apart.
Tigers seemed keen to run the ball, spinning it wide on several occasions, but these came to naught. Eventually Tigers were awarded a penalty, about fifteen metres in from the touch line and 30 metres out, up stepped Staunton and set yet another trend, as he missed the first of at least three kick from roughly the same position.
At some point Tigers won a scrum five metres out, Jordan ran for the line crossed it, and according to Mr White dropped it, given the lack of disagreement from the crowd in that corner I can only assume he got that call right; this is a big assumption given the myriad of knock-ons and forward passes he missed from both sides.
Leeds were living off scraps of possession, when they had it they were capable of some nice play, some neat little pop passes, although most of the time Gomersall chose to kick for our corners, and generally succeeded. This wasn’t a bad ploy as Tigers lineout was functioning only marginally better than the scrum.
Some very forgettable play happened, and then we had one of Mr White’s specsaver moments, a penalty just inside Leeds half, tiger retreat to the ten metre line, Leeds take a quick tap and Tigers a penalized for not retreating. Cue one of the two penalties Leeds kicked in the first half.
Mr. White then provided another comedy moment, when having signaled advantage to Tigers at a ruck, Ben asked if we could have the penalty, was told to play it, Staunton kicked a low drop goal, White then looked at the posts, then the touch judges, shrugged his shoulders a couple of times and came back for the penalty, from that dodgy spot, fortunately this time Staunton kicked the points as all the people round us Leeds fans included thought the drop goal had been scored. At some point Staunton kicked another goal from in front of the posts.
The only try of the match came late in the first half when Newby was quickest to react to a stray line out ball and ran 60 metres, got a stitch for his troubles; he picked the wrong spot to ground the ball, as that meant the conversion was from that spot again, and again the kick was missed.
We’ve grown used to Ben Youngs’ sharp breaks and quick penalties, unfortunately with a minute on the clock, 30 metres out, straight in front of the posts, and 5 points up is not the right time, so a chance to extend our lead to eight points was blown when Alex knocked on.
Half Time: Leeds 6 – 11 Tigers
The second half started with Tigers showing they’re not afraid to learn from teams lower down the league, with Staunton showing he too could mess up a kick-off. This led to a period of dominance for Leeds, from which they scored a penalty.
From this point on Tigers dominated, and spent considerable periods on the Leeds line. Regrettably for Tigers the Leeds defense proved stronger than Tigers attack, several chances going begging due to some poor decision making. The Leeds discipline also has to be applauded as they gave away very few penalties during this time, Tigers successfully converting the only one they attempted.
The last few minutes were a nervous time, as with only a 5 point lead we were vulnerable to a break away, and it looked like Rabeni might provide it when we lost the ball deep in the Leeds half and he galloped up to our ten metre line and delivered a nice offload, luckily they then spilled the ball and Tigers countered and returned the Leeds 22.
The only other moment of note was a wonderful cross field kick by Lund, that nearly got Leeds a try.
Eventually Grindal put us out of our misery by kicking the ball dead from the back of a ruck.
Some thoughts: Harris has a lot of work to do on his scrimmaging, and Cockerill should’ve brought Stankovich on at half time not with 2 minutes to go. It was good to see Allen and Geordan getting some game time; Geordan’s high ball skills haven’t deserted him during his lay-off.
Man of the match: Newby, simply for the well taken try, no-one stood out.
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5,000 people at the game!
Thank you muchly hubby of mine for the much needed report.
Will update the site with news stories and reports. Supporting the Tigers fans community
Email me via tigerchick "at" ymail "dot" com (No spam!)
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For the avoidance of all doubt please note that the views expressed above are the opinions of the author. I do not make any claim as to their veracity beyond that I believe them to be true. I do not believe that they take precedence over anyone else’s but I maintain my right to question and to refute any opinion expressed on here which runs contrary to mine. Please note that I expect nothing else in return. Please do not, however, be offended should I express doubt as to the accuracy or value of any contribution made by another poster.
Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
Just to add to an entertaining day I watched some of that drivel from Italy.
