Yorkshire Carnegie
Otley no match for clinical Leeds Carnegie
TT's MOTM
By Ben Cropper
December 30 2008
On a bitterly cold Boxing Day at Cross Green, Leeds maintained their 100% winning record this National League 1 season with a comprehensive victory against local rivals Otley. Leeds fielded a much changed side for this derby fixture having had a short turnaround since the titanic battle against title rivals Exeter at HC. They made 12 changes to the starting line-up ...
... but were still able to field a pretty strong side with an exciting back-line that included the likes of Tom Biggs, Rob Vickerman and Henry Paul.
In front of a bulging Cross Green crowd, full of Tykes fans, Leeds struggled to get into their stride early in the match. Basic errors meaning that they couldn’t turn possession into points. In contrast the home side were boosted by the hostile atmosphere and produced their stereotypical dogged display lead by former Leeds favourite Dan Hyde.
As usual Leeds’ lineout was not working well and Otley had done their homework on this and disrupted it on numerous occasions early on. They also worked hard at the breakdown to slow Leeds’ ball and disrupt their playing patterns. Otley forward Andy Brown was unlucky not to open the scoring early on when he was held up a metre short.
Otley did, however, take their next chance when another former Leeds player, Tom Rhodes, kicked a penalty from 35metres after 15 minutes to give the home side a 3 – 0 lead. The penalty was given for offside at the breakdown, which has been unusual this season as Leeds’ discipline has notably improved. Leeds received the encouragement they needed after 23 minutes, thanks to a touch judge intervention, when the home side had a man sin-binned for use of the boot – but not for kicking the ball!
3 minutes later Leeds made their man advantage count – good ground was gained by the forward pack, quick ball by Scott Mathie fed Henry Paul who’s long cut-out pass caught the Otley defence flat-footed enabling Biggs to side step the Otley winger and score in the corner. James Brooks added a fantastic touchline conversion to make the score 3 – 7.
Leeds doubled their advantage after 30 minutes when the ball was turned over just inside the Otley half leading to a barnstorming 25metre run by backrow Andy Boyde who handed off the would-be tacklers before scoring under the posts. Brooks easily slotted the conversion to make it 3 – 14.
Leeds were now visibly upbeat and had clearly shaken off the effects of their Christmas turkeys from 24 hours before. The next try was wonderfully constructed and involved good hands across the back-line. Henry Paul fed Vickerman, who in turn fed John Goodridge who powered upfield before play was switched to allow Scott Armstrong to score on the opposite wing. Brooks took the kick and maintained his personal 100% record as well. Otley were now back up to full strength, though Leeds had taken the score out to 3 – 21.
Another good run by Boyde got Leeds going forward again, it took 3 men to haul him down before the ball was recycled, another pass from Saucy to Vickerman who passed on to Goodridge who sprinted down the wing before a piece of quick-thinking produced a lovely reverse pass to Biggsy who went through easily and was seen to smile as he scored the bonus point try. Brooks narrowly missed the conversion making it 3 – 26 on the scoreboard.
There was still time in the first half for Leeds to score again through star man James Brooks. Scrum-half Mathie saw the gap in the Otley defence and a flat pass released his half-back colleague Brooks who raced the last few metres to score between the posts before adding the extras.
Half time: Otley 3 – 33 Leeds Carnegie
Early in the second half the Leeds coaching team rang the changes, most notably Leigh Hinton came on for Biggsy, who later revealed that he had a slight knock to the ankle which he was going to have strapped up in a attempt to be fit for next weeks clash with Rotherham. These changes disrupted the flow of the game for a short while as Leeds struggled to recapture the tempo of the last 10 minutes of the first half. Mathie again grabbed the game by the proverbials and broke through the Otley defence as if t wasn’t there before passing to Goodridge before quickly passing to Vicks who showed great skill in holding off the defender before planting the ball down in the corner. Brooks’ conversion attempt rebounded off the post leaving the score at 3 – 38.
Brooks gave himself an easier conversion minutes later when he crossed for Leeds 7th try. His hoof downfield was well chased by Vickerman who charged down Danny Smith’s attempted clearance and the fly-half was on hand to go over for another try, also adding the conversion to take the scoreboard on to 3 – 45.
England Sevens’ star Vickerman got another well deserved try after good work by replacement centre Scott Barrow, and we were now at 3 – 52 with the scoreboard man looking in need of a pint.
Otley then applied some pressure and slowly moved upfield. Eventually Parr appeared to roll the ball across the Leeds line and the ref gave the try, applying the spirit of Christmas rather than the spirit of Rugby. The conversion was kicked and the score moved to 10 – 52. JD was seen trying to explain what had happened to the referee, who issued a warning instead of listening to the wise back-row forward.
Scott Barrow then scored the 9th try himself with help from the scorer of the 10th try Kearnon Myall. The tenth try came in extra time as Cross Green grew ever colder.
Full time: Otley 10 – 66 Leeds Carnegie
Observations from the game:
Otley came out pumped up and ready to spoil the Leeds party, which until they were reduced to 14 men, they succeeded in doing.
Dan Hyde gave a consistent and committed performance spanning the full 80 minutes of the game against his former club. It was great to meet Dan’s Dad during the second half and listen to his stories spanning Dan’s time at Leeds. Mr Hyde senior was also seen giving Dragon a lesson on the geography of northern England before Dragon stumped off to find that elusive cold pie.
Stand-out performer for Leeds Carnegie was their #10 James Brooks. His impressive haul of 26 points will throw another option into the mix for when Kiwi and Backy pick future teams. On this display he definitely deserves another start against ‘tougher’ opposition.
There were some good performances by the youngsters. Most notably, Andy Boyde, who consistently got Leeds going forward, through the middle of the park. If Rhys Oakley needs a rest then Boyde looks like he can do us a job.
The final mention goes to Otley fullback Ian Shuttleworth who looked at times to have forgotten that he was on a rugby pitch. He was lucky that the referee did not appear to recognise a high tackle when he saw one,
An impressive display by Leeds overall although it would be good to see this combination of players matched up against a side higher up NL1, no disrespect to Otley intended.
Toptyke's Man-of-the-match: James Brooks
Otley: Shuttleworth, Buchanan, Whatmuff, Dench, Smith, Rhodes, Brown, Tretheway, Kay, Fullman, Parr, Williams, McComish, Hyde, Baldwin
Replacements: Wederell for Fullman (53), Steele for Kay, Lewis for Williams (53), Bland for Baldwin (53), Roberts for Whatmuff (46), McCormack for Brown (46), Whittaker for Shuttleworth (60)
Leeds Carnegie: Goodridge, Armstrong, Vickerman, H Paul, Biggs, Brooks, Mathie, McGee, Nilsen, Bucknall, Lund, Myall, Boyde, Clark, D Paul
Replacements: MacDonald for Bucknall (49), Freer, Pendlebury, Dunbar for D Paul (49), Bedford, Barrow for H Paul (53), Hinton for Biggs (46)
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30/12/2008 23:42
Pain is only temporary but victory is forever
Some say he has a Tykes flag with team signatures on.
Others say that he's doing the same to the Carnegie flag,
All we know is that he's called Leeds carnegie signed flag.
