Yorkshire Carnegie
Leeds Carnegie 20 Sale Sharks 34
MoTM
By Andy Brown
December 31 2007
In the cold light of day, this was a result that was pretty much predicted by everybody and anybody who claims to know anything about club rugby. Sale Sharks are the Premiership thoroughbreds against a struggling Leeds side that has been unable to maintain a consistent run of form.
On congregating at my usual spot on the South Stand, with the same familiar faces around me, we all agreed that we were there not because we expected Leeds to win, but that we wanted to see a performance and some evidence that they could in fact cut it at this level. “I’m predicting we’ll see a win today, although not necessarily for Leeds” was how one wag (who shall remain nameless) put it.
So when the whistle went (blown by our good friend Ashley Rowden) for the start of the match, the ferocity with which Leeds went at the play was nothing short of astounding. All the forwards played their part, with dominating performances from loan signing Adam Balding, man-of-the-match Erik Lund and an especially superb display from Tommy McGee, who was the first on the score sheet after six minutes with a storming run through weak cover to go in under the posts. Leigh Hinton as the day’s nominated kicker duly got the extras and it was 7-0. The pressure still was kept up in a totally dominant first quarter, although an early blow came when Rhys Oakley had to go off following a knock to the head. Word has it that – although ambulanced off to the LGI, he was only suffering a bout of concussion. This brought on Callum Clark perhaps earlier than was expected, but the young open-side certainly took care of his opposite numbers in the Sale side, notably Sebastien Chabal who took a particularly solid hit and never seemed to threaten.
A further penalty deep in Sharks territory was converted by Hinton and took the score to 10-0. All bias aside, it was actually difficult to tell who were the newly promoted side and who were the former champions at this stage.
Slowly, however, the Sharks began to creep in to the game, and with a couple of indiscretions at the breakdown, they were able to close the lead down to 10-6. On the stroke of half time, Sale made some good phases and were rewarded with a try in the corner by Lee Thomas, Charlie Hodgson converting to take the visitors into the lead for the first time, and that is how the half ended. 10-13.
The second half Leeds came right back with the same ferocity as the first, and once again were camped on the Sale line for phase after phase. Sadly, the final move wasn’t there and Sale were eventually able to clear their lines. With hindsight, this was perhaps the turning point of the match.
A period of sustained possession by Sale followed, and they got themselves on the scoresheet again with a speculative kick towards the corner while Biggs was up in the defensive line. Lee Thomas sprinted after it, but it appeared as if Biggs and Hinton had it covered. Sadly however, Thomas got there first and registered the try, converting it himself for a 10-20 score line.
Leeds were beginning to revert to a slow, ponderous forwards oriented game, and to be fair this was making progress up the field, although one never felt the killer break would be made in close to the contact area. And so with the screams of “give it out to Biggsy” ringing all across the south stand, the ball emerged from the umpteeth ruck and it was…. given out to Biggsy, who showed what a class act he is by ghosting through the cover and round near to the posts. Sadly the conversion was uncharacteristically missed, but the game was still very much on at 15-20.
However, all hopes of an amazing win for the Carnegie boys was lost when Sale’s Chris Mayor went over which was once again converted, leaving the score at 15-27, and insult was added to injury when Oriol Ripol went through a gaping hole in the centre channel to go under the posts for Sale’s fourth try. 15-34.
Five minutes remained, and all hope of staying off the bottom of the table as we see 2008 in was pinned on scoring two quick tries for the scoring bonus point. With a fantastic backs move, Tom Biggs once again was given the ball and once again the magic was there, with a deft chip ahead to gain the advantage over Mark Cueto to go in at the corner. Conversion missed (but in honesty I believe it was very quickly taken in order to get the last two minutes of play going). 20-34. With great professionalism, Sale closed the game out by regaining the ball from their own kick off and keeping it tight to run the clock down.
So the final score was pretty much what everyone expected, but I was curiously deflated. I hoped to win but expected to lose. However having played the way they did for large parts of the game, my hopes of winning were raised into expectations before being dashed again. Anyone who continues to say the players aren’t good enough for this division is clearly blind. These players are definitely good enough. However we are running out of time for the team ethic to pay its dividend. That first quarter was the best Premiership display a Leeds team I have been watching has ever produced, and I believe that if they can keep that level going for longer then there is nothing to worry about. We are currently being punished very considerably for our mistakes, and not punishing others’ mistakes in return. That, to my mind, was the only real difference between these two teams.
We can go to Adams Park next week with our heads held high. Wasps might think it’ll be a walkover. It won’t be.
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Despite the lack of GP points, an enjoyable, well-fought game and a performance to build on: Come On The Battling Performers!
Just thought you'd like to know that the game also got coverage in the Norwegain national press!
VG.NO
Now you'll be asking me to translate it
Cheers,
CG
