Yorkshire Carnegie
Plane sailing? Pig's ear more like!
By Gelbel
March 10 2014
Plane sailing is a simplified form of navigation for small distances, in which the surface of the sea is considered to be flat rather than curved. It's just as well the world ain't flat as Leeds were in danger of falling off the edge as they made a right old mess of their game to snatch a very hard fought win.
Leeds kicked off in the glorious, early spring sun and first indications were a comfortable win was on the cards when Lozowski scored a penalty after three minutes. They carried on attacking but it came to nothing, with Jersey equalising.
Then we had the first scrum of the game, which, of course, needed resetting and was moved for all of three of the tiniest divots known to mankind. They must've really been dirty great holes as Leeds lost the scrum. However, after some forwards on the floor rolling about type of play, some nice recycling saw Clarke getting the ball, spotting a gap and running through to score his debut try. The conversion was missed.
Then it all went very strange. I've not seen so many handling errors nor mistakes from Leeds in a long time. That's not to take anything away from Jersey who were up to take a big scalp. Their attitude, Leeds' mediocreness, a couple of unawarded penalties from scrums from Mr Fox (who had a very good game...in comparison to his ministrations at London Welsh), a Vickerman try denied due to a forward pass, an exchange of penalties after serious amounts of advantage being played, several Leeds players in grave danger of losing their shorts and some poor line outs saw Jersey's pressure eventually tell and they scored a converted try.
So it was 13-11 at the 30 minute point and that's the way it stayed for another 40 minutes. Changes came quickly after half time as Leeds battled up the slope with Holmes replacing Doc, Goss swapping from full back to wing and Leeds were playing their announced starting line up: Holmes needed his beauty sleep and had missed the bus. He made his own way to Manchester Airport in double quick time to meet up with his team mates. Goss had a reasonable time at full back; he made some big, but not pretty tackles and made several breaks with the ball. Nilsen, Harris and Casson came on for Imoliek, Graham, who did not have the best time at the line out, and, surprisingly, Smith.
Jersey appeared to be the most likely to score next when their #8 was passed the ball. All he had to do was charge through but, luckily for Leeds, he knocked on.
Burdon had been attempting breaks most of the match; most ended due to high tackles. The one that was spotted resulted in a penalty just right of centre of the posts which Bentley, who'd come on to replace Lozowski, somehow missed. Jersey missed their chance to extend their lead when they fluffed a penalty. Burdon found a way to dodge the defence with his head still attached to his body and scored a try that Bentley converted. 13-18.
Leeds were camped close to their own line, absorbing huge amounts of Jersey pressure time and again. Unlike last week's outing when Leeds got away with giving penalties away in a series of scrums, Leeds kept it clean in the scrums on their 5m line and disrupted, but did not turn over, a few line outs before eventually coming away with the ball and the final whistle blew.
I know a win's a win's a win but that wasn't even an ugly win. It's easy to blame the performance on a very early start for the players but that does not explain how below par the Leeds' performance was. The Jersey fans were delighted with their team's performance and before the game would've settled for their losing bonus point. It could've been more. Still, better an off-day at the office at Jersey than next time out at HC against Bristol.
If Leeds' promotion plans all go pear shaped and we find ourselves playing Jersey next season, I thoroughly recommend the trip. Everyone who went commented on the friendliness of the islanders. I mean, it's not very often those of us who like to partake of drop or two of ale get told to To$$er's off. Sorry about that, an in joke from those of us who drank The Lamplighters dry on Friday night. Yes I did dare!
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10/03/2014 05:35
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:03:28:18:18:13 by Wildwillie .
Don't kick it pick it up and GO FORWARD
Thanks to everyone we met over the weekend for their hospitality, it was excellent.
COME ON LEEDS.
We've been through it all together.
the only bit i raised the eyebrows at was the 'that wasn't even an ugly win'. i know players, officials & supporters are setting high standards this season & realise that the club's ambitions won't be achieved if they play like that, but even so - an ugly win is exactly what it was. you got 4 points, and there it wasn't a pyrrhic victory, as it might have been if there'd been some major disciplinary issue or 2-3 players had suffered season-ending injuries. an ugly win is exactly what it is.
We did make it hard for ourselves by trying to dominate their strong pack instead of constantly moving the ball wide. Granted the pitch was the minimum width but it would have tired their forwards more quickly if they had had to run from side to side.
