Yorkshire Carnegie
Saved by the Bell!
M-o-M
By Gelbel
January 1 2012
So there was I seeing in the new year at the local hostelry, admiring the stonkingly, brilliant fireworks from London and I hoping that Leeds Carnegie would put on a similar spectacular display today, making the crowd go, “Ohh and ahh” with delight. How wrong can you be? The only oohing and ahhing going on was at the ineptitude of the referee and the inane kicking that Leeds did with 95% of their possession.
Leeds kicked off with Ford (of the Joe variety) placing a low kick into the London Scottish side and with a good bit of attacking in the first few minutes, including a lovely charging run from Hohneck, I thought the Doncaster ghost of Christmas past had been put to bed. I was obviously in for a day of disappointments. Thornley was dragged into touch following early ambition from Leeds, who were then penalised by the ref. for being off-side in the lineout. Mugford made it 0-3.
Ford kicked the restart straight into touch and in the resulting scrum MacDonald was deemed not to be binding – a tad difficult when the London Scottish tighthead would not let him! Mugford stepped up and was allowed to move into Leeds’ half to make it 0-6. Leeds were awarded a penalty which was kicked to the corner. Although the lineout was lost, the visitors knocked on and were then penalised for hands in the ruck. Bell slotted away the penalty to make it 3-6.
Leeds were attacking again and even won a scrum against the head - when it was not so much feeding as putting the ball in a nose-bag for the Scottish pack. Then it sort of all kicked off, I’m not really sure how it started – it looked like Kane Palma Newport was not released following a tackle, George Ford took umbrage to something and there was a really nasty fight (no handbags with this one) with practically all 30 players involved. Hohneck was spoken to – he’d gone in for round 2 but none of the Leeds team were called into account. Unlike Thomas Brown for Scottish, who got 10 minutes to cool off after he’d thrown a jab at Burrows’ head. Bell missed the penalty that was awarded.
The ref. decided to even things up a bit and sent Tom Denton to the bin for infringing in a maul. Mugford missed that attempt. He missed converting his own try too. When I say try…the ref. awarded it after conferring with the linesman. This being a try they were sure of despite being some distance away and missing the knock-on in the in-goal area when they missed Sean Hohneck being pulled down in a lineout right in front of them a minute or so earlier. 3-11 with half-time approaching. We then endured both sides trading kicks and watched the Scottish hooker take a novel approach to the lineout – we see the occasional throw to the front, but it’s a rarity to see that move not done straight. So rare that the ref. could not’ve trusted his eyes and ignored it.
Hohneck made a good long run with the ball that was picked up by Thornley before being passed out to Bell to score. Bell converted his try. 10-11 at half- time.
Early in the second half Joe Ford missed touch with a penalty and a few plays later Plug showed how the cheeky throw-in to the front of the lineout can be done with a legal throw. Bell made it 13-11 with a penalty after saving a try from London Scottish replacement winger; who proved a bit of a handful throughout the second half. Or did he just appear to stand out as his shirt was Persil white and not covered in mud from the boggy pitch?
More tennis occurred to the consternation of the crowd. And it seemed that Burrows thought the same as he kept hold of the ball, making a good barging run to take the ball forward. There followed a long delay as Anthony Andrews was badly injured and both teams took to keeping warm while he was stretched off. Scottish were awarded a penalty that missed touch, but opted for the posts at a subsequent attempt making it 13-14.
Bell had a penalty attempt from about 2 metres inside Leeds’ half – the direction was true, but the kick didn’t have the legs. He redeemed himself a short time later following Leeds being awarded a penalty from the lineout. So 16-14 with about 10 minutes left to play. It was soon 16-17 as Scottish were awarded a penalty for Leeds being off-side and another 10 metres as Lockwood knocked the ball out of the opposition’s hand.
Leeds kept hold of the ball and were taking it forwards. They were awarded a penalty for their efforts for Scottish being offside but Bell missed. Pressing on again, Leeds were awarded another penalty and got a huge kick for touch. They continued with the effort and were given a final chance to win the game. Bell won the match (again) by scoring from an awkward angle. 19-17 at the final whistle.
A question, is slowing the set pieces legal? Is there a time limit like for penalties? If not there should be; or more penalising for time wasting. There’s gamesmanship but that was extremely turgid today and served no purpose other than to wind the crowd up.
2012 will be a big year for me – a promotion is within my grasp, I’ll be part of the greatest show on earth and I’m celebrating a rather significant birthday. Somehow, unless a Herculean transformation takes place, Leeds will only be celebrating their birthdays as I can’t see them getting to the play-off semi-finals; so no promotion and no playing with the elite next season. We’ve got to stop the endless booting of the ball in the air, especially when it’s not chased. Surely the players could see they were more threatening, and stronger, with the ball in hand? And talking of threatening and stronger – Hohneck is getting better and better. He seems to have hit a rich vein of form. Please let him share whatever it is making that happen with the rest of the squad. Because, I’m afraid, if Leeds don’t light the fuse and start to sparkle very soon then 2012 will be a damp squib.
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01/01/2012 22:36
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:01:06:18:31:09 by WildWillie .
Can't agree with you WW - I don't see how LS deserved to win the game.
Yes, we have deficiencies, but Bell missed a couple so another kicker (Ford) would probably have got the kicks instead...
Still don't see what LS did that makes you think they did deserve to win.
At least we managed a win.........................
Whats with this aimless kicking? Tactical kicking is fine, providing it's followed up efficiently, (which rarely happened yesterday,) but this constant and repetitive hoofing into the air, to be collected by the opposition, rather than spilled by us, is ridiculous!
Thank goodness for Ryan Burrows who showed yesteday just what can be done by running with ball in hand.
More of that please Tykes. Play rugby, not ping pong!
As for the refreee yesterday, the only correct decision he made was stopping play when the Scottish guy suffered his leg injury. The best wishes of all at Headingley go with you.
Back to the ref. Tut tut Mr Tut! not one of your better performances....................
Up the Carnegie TYKES !
A very frustrating game. We are better than this, and I think it is time to show what we can do.
Game plans are all very well but an ability to alter the game plan to suit the circumstances has got to be better!
Quote:farmertyke
I would have torn it up in frustration......
It came in useful later...
In all seriousness I have an awful memory so I have to scribble my own shorthand.
I had lots of tips on spelling mediocre, awful and the like.
Miserati - and Proud to be!
