By Tukey
September 11 2005

It’s grim up north - an expression that we are all familiar with. Well Ah’ll tell tha summut – it was grim down south today. Leeds Tykes suffered their second straight defeat of the season - out of two - at a gloomy Vicarage Road.

It had been drizzling most of the morning and the players emerged to a damp pitch.  Sarries started the stronger of the two, looking keen and eager to please the home crowd.  Sarries had the first chance of points but missed a penalty from about 35 metres out.  From the 22 drop out, Sarries took the ball and direct running from No 8 Ben Skirving sliced through the Tykes mid-field all too easily.  (Oh god not one of those afternoons again?).  Skirving passed the ball to ex Tykes favourite Dan Scarbrough who made good yards and made the final pass to the mercurial Frenchman Thomas Castaignede who went in unchallenged.  Jackson added the conversion, 7-0 after 6 minutes.  Jackson extended the lead with a penalty after Captain Hooper was deemed off side.  This seemed to spur Tykes on and they put together a passage of play that promised so much but failed to deliver.  The backs and forwards were interchanging and getting behind the tight Sarries defence after Scott Morgan had broken down the blind side.  Tykes moved the ball across the pitch and were camped in the Sarries right hand corner. Tykes were ignoring a clear overlap, much to Balshaws annoyance, after a series of drives at the line.  Sarries could not help themselves and referee Spreadbury awarded the visitors a penalty, duly kicked by Ross. 

 

At this stage I feel I should mention Sarries No 7 David Seymour.  Seymour must have been under orders to nail Ross at every opportunity, (if he wasn’t Steve Diamond will be very pleased with him). Every time Ross had the ball Seymour hit him, very hard, which put Ross off his game: well it would wouldn’t it?

 

Leeds had another opportunity when Marshall broke from a lineout and broke the Sarries defence.  Looking for support he found Ross, who in turn was found by Seymour. Ross knocked on in the tackle and the chance was lost. 

 

Leeds, at times, seemed to revert to the bad old days of last season, passes not going to hand, in front of players, knocked on, behind – I won’t go on, you get the idea?

 

Sarries worked hard for their field position and after several last ditch tackles by the Tykes, Sarries had a man over in the shape of Kevin Sorrell who crossed for the 2^nd of the day.  It was converted by Jackson, who had a good day with the boot, to make it 20 – 3 on the half hour.

 

Worse was still to come.  When Scarbrough went in under the posts after he ran hard and direct, broke through some very sloppy tackling, and skipped past Balshaw for Sarries 3^rd, Jackson converted to make it 27 – 3 at half time.  In the first half our lineout worked well, but the scrumaging was awful. We went backwards at a rate of knots, both in the scrums and when Sarries picked and drove from loose or lineout.  It will be a good day when Shelly and Gerber are fit and Lensing arrives.

 

Phil Davies didn’t look happy when he walked past me to the dressing room.  He looked even worse when he walked back out for the second half.

 

Some changes were made in the form of Parks, Bulloch, Cusack and Biggs coming on.  Ross, Rawlinson, Thomas and Issacson all departed.  De Marigney went to fly half, Biggs to the wing.  The changes seemed to bolster the pack.  Rawlinson will be disappointed, as he hadn’t done anything wrong.  Issacson was ineffective in the scrum and Thomas did not have any presence at all around the park.

 

Tykes came on in a better frame of mind; harsh words from Davies must have worked, as it was Leeds who scored first with a penalty from De Marginey (ED: Spelling mistake or ironic twist on a name?).  This was just a blip for Sarries, who a few minutes later got the fourth and bonus point try through hooker Matt Cairns after a series of driving mauls from a line out.

 

Tykes did seem to grow in confidence and put pressure on Sarries.  I feel this was more to do with the fact that Sarries, having secured a win, changed players to give everyone a run out.  Leeds did score a try of their own through Chris Murphy.  Having replaced Hooper a few minutes earlier, Murphy charged down/intercepted a loose ball and galloped around 20 metres to score the Tykes only try of the day - but by luck more than judgement.  De Marginey added the conversion. 

 

Justin Marshall worked hard to fire the backs into some sort of unit, but his efforts were in vain.  Sarries game plan put Marshall ‘out of the game’; every time he was tackled it brought a great cheer from the home crowd.  Marshall was replaced with ten minutes to go by Danny Care.  Care was lively enough and together with Biggs and Doherty tried unsuccessfully to manufacture something for the Tykes.  Stimpson replaced Doherty 3 minutes later, but by this time it was all over bar the shouting.  One good point, which I did enjoy, was Biggs taking on and beating Scabs down the touchline.  The ball went inside to Dunbar who was forced into touch.  From the lineout Tykes infringed and Sarries put the ball into touch, game over. 

 

Final score: Sarries 34 – Tykes 16. 

 

Man of the match, voted for by Sarries, was Scabs. He was involved in three of their tries and looks back to his best.  Dickens was his usual busy self and looked even better behind a dominant, forward going pack.  I predict that it will take a very good team to visit Vicarage Road and go away with an away win.

 

Where do the Tykes go from here? Could I suggest straight round to the soothsayer who worked the magic for the last five games of last season.  Leeds need to produce a good performance next time out, but with Wasps and Tiggers on top form they will need to work hard; very hard.  

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