Yorkshire Carnegie
Knights Slaughter Defenceless Kids - Now that is News!
Needs a settled shirt
By Gelbel
October 3 2011
When I woke up on Thursday morning I had a slight niggle in my neck. Over the next few days it got worse and spread so that I’ve totally seized up, am in constant agony and nothing I’ve tried seems to fix it. And the similarity between this and what I saw when I watched Leeds Carnegie against Doncaster Knights on Sunday afternoon is as clear as the gap between the bottom and top of the Championship league table........
It all started well enough, with an inexperienced Leeds team taking the game to Doncaster. The Doncaster fly-half had a mare of a kicking game. He’d missed the chance of an early three-pointer. He went for a massive touch for another penalty – but missed. Which was actually just as well as the referee had just made the first of many extraordinary decisions – so it was good to see it was thwarted with a touch of karma. A bit of justice for not giving Leeds a penalty for Doncaster being off-side. Missing touch sparked an attack that saw Richard Beck make an outstanding break and Jacob Rowan charging through a gaping hole and running unchallenged to score. Tommy Bell converted. 7-0 after 16ish minutes. Can someone tell me why the stadium clock can’t be stopped in this division please?
Doncaster regrouped and some pushing and shoving from their forwards and some poor tackling from Leeds send Tom Davies over for a try. Tom Luke appeared to have left his kicking boots at home.
Those boots were still at home when he kicked the ball out on the full shortly after. Leeds continued to play with lots of spirit; even if some phases saw the home team actually go backwards in possession. But Leeds’ efforts were rewarded with two penalties which Bell put away. So 13-5 and I was feeling good – endorphins were flowing through my body soothing my aches and pains and I could even turn and admire replays on the big screen. But as quick as you can say “Deep Heat”, Leeds knocked on in the lineout and gave away a penalty for being off-side. Doncaster passed the ball around and they had their second try. Those boots were still AWOL though.
With half time fast approaching Leeds stiffened up at the same rate as my neck and shoulders and those boots finally made their way to LS6 with Luke scoring a penalty. A second was a wonderful long range effort from the Doncaster full-back.
Half time and I was scratching my head as to how Leeds went in 13-16 down. I was sure we’d come out as winners at the final whistle. But the tables turned and Leeds spent much of the half defending deep in their own territory. The home crowd were delighted to seeing Bell hoof a penalty between the posts from the halfway line to level the score. A quick line out was denied when the Doncaster loose-head prop appeared as if by magic - like you do when you are massively off-side. But the officials ignored that, the damage was done and the line-out was lost. The Knights charged up field and carved through Leeds’ defence to score a converted try.
So 16-23 and I was thinking a losing bonus point would be on the cards. There was even a bit of a rally from Leeds around the 70 minute mark. But the referee made the worst decision of the day and missed a blatant nasty high tackle on Barker. Now Leeds should’ve really stopped the try that happened but I suspect they were gob-smacked that the high shot was totally ignored. Doncaster’s fourth try was converted.
The result flattered Doncaster – OK so Leeds (probably) did not deserve to win, they certainly did not deserve to be on the end of a 16-30 defeat.
I did see some positives – Tommy Bell’s spot kicking – at last we have someone who can take a long range kick. Actually we have someone who was accurate with all his spot kicks and does not take an age to psych himself up to take them. Ollie Richards was more effective in attack than Curtis Wilson. Robbie Shaw, making his first start, was sharp and called the shots. The occasional good scrum – Swainston had a great game and Sam Lockwood came on with plenty of ‘attitude’, Danny Paul walking passed the South Stand before kick-off.
But I saw so much that was wrong – little leadership, poor scrummaging, missed tackles, awful handling, no following-up of balls punted up the pitch, not ‘talking to’ the referee. It seems to me that the team can’t maintain 100% concentration 100% of the time. Why did Joe Ford take over kicking duties? Actually, why did he come on as centre? Surely it would’ve been better for Barker to move out there?
There’s lots of questions to be answered and unless we start winning this season will become a right old pain in the neck. And I can tell you know that’s horrid.
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03/10/2011 19:30
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:10:05:19:54:50 by Wildwillie.
last season we didnt have a flyhalf at the start of the season, this season we had 3 on the pitch all at the same time!
magic
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:10:03:22:49:04 by haxbytyke.
And not more than 2 minutes later Doncaster did exactly the same - high kick from Leeds, knocked on into the hands of an offside Donny player, right in front of the Donny posts, but the result was only a scrum to Leeds - why the ref chose this as the punishment is anyone's guess.
