By apb
August 13 2005

This was a game that the powers that be at Leeds Rugby will have been hoping would win over a few die-hard "100% League" fans and generate cross code interest for the Tykes' new season. If there are any who thought that was a good game, take their season ticket money now Mr. Hetherington!

For those of us who've never been to a Rhinos game before, we were in for a bit of a shock, since the stewarding was very much more strict and I was personally given the impression of being "imprisoned" in the South Stand. Fair play to them, all the stewards were very courteous, but others appear to have had a rougher ride, Daveyjp and Siani actually getting their money back due to their treatment.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the match itself was a dire affair, not helped by the torrential rain in the first half. That does not excuse the sheer enormity of knock ons that occurred. It was a very stop-stop affair, and at one point Timofe suggested that maybe they'd requested scrummaging practise from the referee!

Wandering from scrum to scrum, the forwards looked ponderous and uninterested, and the backs looked like they did last season before the incredible escape from relegation; they had few ideas and continued to batter into several defenders at every possession. Even Justin Marshall looked ordinary today. It was with some relief that the first half whistle went, with absolutely zero points on the board, and frankly not much more interest from the spectators.

The sun came out for the second half, and there was a marked improvement in the Tykes play in terms of pressure, if not from basic skills. The game was largely played in the Edinburgh half. With the amount of pressure that was on, two tries were scored, one from a classic premiership-style pushover try, and the other utilising the space out wide to put Andre Snyman in. Only one of these tries was converted, and that was the end of the scoring from the Tykes point of view. Edinburgh did get on the scoreboard, following a lapse in concentration from the All Blacks legend Justin Marshall, his opposite number sending him the wrong way around a scrum and the blind side cover was inexplicably missing. Duncan Hodge converted and the final outcome was 12-7 to the Tykes.

From a positive standpoint, The defence was in general, sound. Biggsy still looks a handful, and the scrummaging was consistently on top all afternoon. The Tykes won the match. Oh, the new replica shirt WAS available on the day as well!

On the debit side, although it was an ugly win, and were this a meaningful game the win would have been enough, the fact is that it wasn't a meaningful game. It was a pre-season test of the new set-up, and it was, quite frankly, found wanting. It was also meant to be an advertisement for Rugby Union at Headingley. For that reason, it wasn't so much an ugly win, as a Pyhrric victory.

Don't expect to see too many new converts come the next Headingley game, on 18th September.