By Ian Birks
March 28 2005

Tigers have never won at Leeds, a record that the Yorkshire men should be rightly proud of. The Leicester team that played in Headingley in the ‘05 season was as good a team as we have seen all season. The difference? Leeds were playing for premiership survival, Tigers were playing for 80 minutes!
The tone of the match was set in the first minute when the visitors found themselves down to 14 men: Julian White binned for a fracas with Mark Regan. The resulting penalty rubbed salt into the wound as Gordon Ross slotted the first of six penalty kicks on the day.

This was one of those scrappy, whistle-filled games that flowed like cold treacle. The Tykes making the most of White’s time in the sin-bin, stood up to Leicester’s scrum and mauls, but could not handle the power of the Tigers scrummage once the England prop returned to the fray.

Penalties were exchanged for the rest of the first half as Ross and Goode took the score to 15-9 to Leeds with Goode converting two penalties and a drop goal, but it was the home side who were to rue their missed chances.

After soaking up pressure from the Tigers, Leeds broke out of their 22 with David Rees haring towards the try line. The gap between him and the chasing Leicester defenders seeming to grow with every step, but the applause for a well taken try was to prove to be premature!

Within a few metres of scoring, Rees just seemed to stop running, slowed and assumed that everyone in a Leicester strip had given him the 5-pointer. Geordan Murphy had other ideas and tackled the Leeds winger a few metres from the try-line. Isolated, Rees held on to the ball, and the chance to put decent daylight between Leeds and Leicester was gone.

This has got to be a contender for the Question Of Sport ‘What happened next’ round – the score looked so certain, and should have given the Tykes a healthy halftime lead.

Leicester came out the stronger side at the start of the second half. Goode reduced the Tykes lead with a further penalty, but it was the combination of Gibson and Smith who helped Lloyd to cross the line for the first try of the game. 15 –19.

But Tiger’s joy and their lead was short lived: Tom Biggs took the ball on half way and sliced through the visitor’s defence with ease, cancelling out Lloyds try, although Ross’s conversion attempt was well wide and short.

20 – 19 soon became 23 – 19 as Ross took a further penalty. We were into the last quarter and we had a game on our hands!

Goode slotted a further penalty to take Leicester to within a point of Leeds, but the final 10 minutes of the game were frenetic and , unfortunately for Leicester, error strewn.

It seemed that everyone was willing to have a go at the killer-blow drop goal to steal victory in the dying minutes, but attempts were poor as panic set in.

Leicester failed to close out the game at Headingley and Leeds’ 100% home record against top-placed Tigers remained in tact.

This was no fluke: Leeds were playing for pride and premiership survival. Leicester were beaten in true Yorkshire style, with grit and determination.

Complaints about refereeing decisions are facile, after all, both sides were refereed by the same guy: decisions tend to even out after 80 minutes. The were a few incidents that were a little distasteful: the Leeds announcer making everyone aware of a player change during Goode’s run up after Lloyds try, and the booing from the home crowd during a Goode penalty attempt.

Leicester fans were universally chastised for booing the referee during the Biarritz home game earlier this season, but respect for the kicker, regardless of which team, is all important for the Leicester crowd. Perhaps we expect too much when travelling away sometimes?

Meanwhile this result has made for an interesting run in to the end of the season at both top and bottom with Leicester’s lead ahead of Wasps and Leeds lag behind Worcester both reduced to 4 points!


ZP standings after week 19:

Leicester 67
Wasps 63
Sale 51
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Bath 49
Saracens 49
Gloucester 46
Newcastle 41
Harlequins 36
Northampton 35
London Irish 34
Worcester 34
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Leeds 30

Teams
Leeds: Biggs; Snyman, Christophers, Bell, Rees; Ross, Dickens; Shelley, Regan, Kerr; Hooper, Palmer; Morgan, Parks, Popham.
Replacements: Albanese, McMillan, Holt, Dunbar, Rawlinson, Hyde, McMullen.

Leicester: Murphy; Lloyd, Smith, Gibson, Healey, Goode, Ellis; Morris, Chuter, White; M Johnson, Deacon; W Johnson, Back, Corry.
Replacements: Moody, A Tuilagi, Buckland, H Tuilagi, Bemand, Holford, Vesty.

Referee: Sean Davey
Touch judges: Bob Mills and Steve Savage.

Final score 23-22.