By Andy Brown
October 17 2006

The first 20 minutes or so was fairly typical of this kind of encounter, with one or other team trying to gain the ascendency and the other holding on until they could sort themselves out.

In this match it was the Pirates who got to grips with things first, and dispite a missed penalty attempt early on, registered the first points of the match with a simple penatly in front of the posts after Tom Biggs had been penalised for holding on in the tackle. (Mind you, he was isolated and had no support after tidying up a Cornish kick over the top, so he had little choice).

 

This galvanised the Tykes and soon after they swept over the line with a Johnny Hepworth try finishing off a fine move. Leigh Hinton's conversion attempt missed and it was 5-3 to the Tykes.

 

With barely a time to draw breath, Pirates came straight back at the Tykes and scored with an excellent display of back line skills, McAteer getting the touchdown. Conversions weren't going over though, and the score only went as far as 8-5 to the Pirates. After a restart the Pirates were done for holding on in a similar position to Biggsy's at the other end, and Hinton made no mistake with the penalty to square the match at 8-8.

 

Pirates were beginning to look a class act, and it was only really the referee's whistle that kept them from crossing the line again, but a fine relieving kick brough play up to the Pirates 22, and Leeds looked to capitalise on their good fortune. However losing the ball doesn't help your cause, and the forwards would have been dismayed at the sight of a huge kick over the top, with only Leigh Hinton anywhere near rescuing the situation, whereas there were several quick pasty boys on his tail. Once again, the referee came to the rescue, pinging Hinton's asailant for not rolling away at the tackle.

 

With another Leeds attack, another penalty, this time resulting in a sin binning for the Pirates' loosehead, and Leigh Hinton put the Tykes back in the lead, but it wasn't very long before Alberto di Barnardo put the Pirates back on terms. With a couple of good moves from the Tykes spoiled by poor handling, and some breathtakingly naïve attempts by the Pirates to run the ball out their own in-goal area – all of which came to nothing, the teams headed into the changing rooms all square at 11-11, which was just about the right result at this point in the proceedings.

 

The second half started pretty much as the first half did, and the Pirates headed toward the Tykes line with enterprise and confidence. With the scores all square however, discretion is always the better part of valour, and a sweet drop-goal from di Barnardo put the score to 11-14. Tykes showed some enterprise of their own however, and Biggsy seemed to see more of the ball than of late, drawing a penalty from a particulary sharp dart down the left. However the long kick at goal was nowhere near. Although the match was still nip and tuck, Leeds seemed to ad a bit of urgency into their play with 20 minutes to go, and although the attacks regularly came to nothing, they were at least trying different things and keeping the Pirates' defence guessing. As if to signal their intentions, Richard Welding replaced Tom Rock after 63 minutes to great appreciation of both the Tykes and the Pirates fans in the crowd.

When called upon to defend, there was some terrific work rate from the "old pro" Jon Dunbar, winning the ball at a crucial time, and this possession set up a blistering attack from the whole back line which saw a perfectly good Leeds try under the posts ruled out – apparently in ND1 forward passes aren't allowed!!!

 

Shortly after this, di Barnardo claimed a forty yarder to put the score up to 11-17, and for all the enterprise shown by the Leeds team, they needed to start delivering points rather than promise. Again, with such a closely fought game and with barely ten minutes to go, any penalty within range was going to be attempted, and a touchline kick from the 35 yard line sailed over to put Tykes back in touch at 14-17.

 

Another "not-binding-properly" penalty in front of their own posts put the Pirates bak in charge at 14-20, and things were starting to look desparate. Attempting silly plays from within their own 22, Leeds didn't look like turning the match around at this point, and the Pirates continually looked to turn the screw. Another di Barnardo drop-goal attempt failed to cross, which would've killed the game stone dead – but the Tykes looked dead and buried anyway.

 

And then, the Tykes gained some ground, and then it was the Pirates who were desparately hanging on to things, diving over the top of rucks and from this series of penalties Tykes gained a line-out ten metres out. With the obvious ploy of the driving maul they sucked in just enough defenders, and then sent the ball right and then left, Johnny Hepworth coming in on the angle and crashing over for his second score of the night. 19-20!! A conversion would do it!! (OMG! No conversion attempt had gone over in this game!). Under severe pressure from an incredibly fast charge down which nearly got to the kicker's feet, Leigh Hinton slotted over the conversion to take the lead for the final time.

 

The Pirates were trying everything to get back ahead, with di Barnardo sitting back in the pocket looking for the drop-goal at every opportunity, but Johnny Hepworth also had a go at the same ploy, a Pirates charge-down saving the day for them again. With precious little injury time added, the referee blew and the Tykes had done it. The look on both teams faces told the whole story of the match; the Pirates were gutted and the Tykes were relieved as well as delighted. It was one of those games.

 

For sheer excitement and as a ding-dong battle, it was a cracking match, both teams contributing to the flow of the game. Another four points in the bag against one of the top teams in this division and that will do the confidence a world of good. Pirates looked a much better team in this game than when I saw them pre-season at Cambourne, and if they continue to get better on that scale, then they will certainly be in the mix at the end of the season. Hopefully too Leeds can add this experience to their portfolio and go on to put some serious points on the board in the next few matches.

 

 

 

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