Yorkshire Carnegie
Will Bedford give Leeds the travelling blues?
By Rocky
September 26 2013
My last trip to Bedford was memorable for three reasons, a great win for Leeds, an excellent Tiger roll and a terrible view. Pre-season I invested in a mini-stepladder to give me a better view, sadly pre-arranged plans mean I can't attend but it should be a great game. In its place here is my preview
Since the inception of the Championship the Blues have been consistently placing towards the higher end of the table and coming away from Goldington Road with points is always a challenge. In recent years Bedford have been amongst the leading contenders in the league and, although they have in the past said that they are not keen on promotion they are always there to be the banana skin for other hopefuls.
Date | League |
|
|
|
| Attendance | Info |
14/10/2000 | D1 | Leeds Tykes | 42 - 6 | Bedford Blues | Headingley Carnegie | 350 |
|
10/02/2001 | D1 | Bedford Blues | 3 - 48 | Leeds Tykes | Goldington Road | 1,225 |
|
14/10/2006 | NL1 | Bedford Blues | 25 - 21 | Leeds Tykes | Goldington Road | 3,049 | |
04/02/2007 | NL1 | Leeds Tykes | 31 - 0 | Bedford Blues | Headingley Carnegie | 2,287 | |
09/11/2008 | NL1 | Leeds Carnegie | 19 - 8 | Bedford Blues | Headingley Carnegie | 3,051 | |
14/03/2009 | NL1 | Bedford Blues | 27 - 24 | Leeds Carnegie | Goldington Road | 2,955 | |
29/10/2011 | CHAMP | Bedford Blues | 28 - 45 | Leeds Carnegie | Goldington Road | 2,763 | |
29/01/2012 | CHAMP | Leeds Carnegie | 21 - 17 | Bedford Blues | Headingley Carnegie | 2,514 | |
25/03/2012 | CHAMP-PROMB | Leeds Carnegie | 24 - 24 | Bedford Blues | Headingley Carnegie | 1,782 | |
31/03/2012 | CHAMP-PROMB | Bedford Blues | 26 - 20 | Leeds Carnegie | Goldington Road | 2,977 | |
Sun 2 Dec | CHAMP | Leeds Carnegie | 25 - 45 | Bedford Blues | Cross Green | 1,564 | |
Sat 13 Apr | CHAMP | Bedford Blues | 24 - 33 | Leeds Carnegie | Goldington Road | 2,649 |
In terms of the past few years the Bedford team have benefitted from their close relationship with Saracens with the likes of Owen Farrell and Mako Vunipola getting game time with the team. This season the Sarries crop is Sam Stanley, Nick Auterac and Tom Jubb are dual-registered with the side. Other than the Saracens link Bedford did bring in a few players over the summer with the likes of Michael Le Bourgeois (linked with Leeds over the summer) swapping Jersey red for the Bedford Blue. One major loss was Joss Bassett who made the short journey down the road to Wasps.
So far Leeds have had a mixed season after two games, a woeful performance against Nottingham (the Donny curse) and a superb result against the Pirates means the initial pessimism has been replaced by optimism and the challenge from the Blues will be an interesting one. The Blues have had a poor start to the year losing two games on the bounce, the first a 23-14 defeat to a strong London Welsh side followed by a surprising 26-14 defeat to pre-season relegation candidates Jersey.
I am sure the riot act will be read at Goldington Road and they will come out fired up to secure their first win of the season. The atmosphere in the Leeds camp is positive with the aim to back up last week’s performance and to remedy the errors from the match. I can't foresee any major changes, in fact I expect the same starting XV, but there are some concerns in my eyes.
Glynn Hughes is the running fly-half we have wanted for a while but his place kicking has been inconsistent and, in tight games towards the end of the year this will be more concerning. I am sure this will be remedied in time but until then we need to not waste any opportunities.
Having not seen the Pirates game in its entirety I may be corrected but the main issues during the Notts game were handling, securing quick ball from contact and the set piece. Written reviews indicate that most of those appeared to be addressed down in Cornwall but it remains to be seen whether we can get the consistency we frequently lack. We will start to see our injured players returning over the coming months which is key as we do look spartan in a few positions. We will also seem some of the much vaunted talent in our academy coming through and getting the game time they require to progress (to Northampton!).
So, what do I think will happen. Well the weather forecast for Saturday is going to be ~18oC and showers are expected. I hope that our bright yellow kit will shine through the gloom and the lads will deliver a win, it won't be a big win, but I expect a 4 point win for Leeds. Any showers will put pressure on our handling, so our tactics will have to be spot on. A good performance from the pack is required to give our exciting backline the ball under as little pressure as possible and hopefully we’ll see fireworks from the likes of Doc, Goss, Holmes, Griffin and Lozowski if they are given the space they need to make an impact on the game. The older players like Nilsen, Myerscough, Buzz and Rowan will be key to this and our decision making has to be impeccable (take the points!).
To those travelling down wear your platform shoes, have a safe journey down and enjoy the game. If you arrive early why not check out the Cricketers Arms who have a couple of great beers on at the moment (Oakham Ales - JHB, Adnams - Southwold Bitter)……don’t forget the pork tiger roll for sustenance (with ALL the trimmings!).
RockyTheTyke
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26/09/2013 20:19
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:10:05:07:28:32 by Wildwillie .
First game of the season for me on Saturday and I'm really looking forward to it.
Hopefully the Blues won't steal your Preview and bang it on their website!
Nice write up, enjoy all and 'Hug a Hooker' for me please!
Zandra YaPoI
YaPoI - Yorkshire and Proud of It
'proficiscor in una'
BRILLIANT preview Rocky; like you I'm previously occupied but have TuneIn Radio, will listen.
Come on ye Tykes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
15 David Doherty
14 Jonah Holmes
13 Josh Griffin
12 Fred Burdon
11 Oli Goss
10 Alex Lozowski
9 Craig Hampson
1 Ben Harris
2 Phil Nilsen
3 Damien Tussac
4 Matthew Smith
5 Calum Green
6 Jacob Rowan (c)
7 James Doyle
8 Ryan Burrows
16 Joe Graham
17 Sam Lockwood
18 Jake Armstrong
19 Nathan Hannay
20 Chris Walker
21 Peter Lucock
22 Stevie McColl
Leeds Offy
15. Mark Atkinson
14. Corey Hircock
13. Brendan Burke
12. Ollie Dodge
11. Neville Edwards
10. Mike Le Bourgeois
9. Luke Baldwin
1. Nico Steenkamp
2. Scott Spurling
3. Phil Boulton
4. Paul Tupai
5. Mike Howard
6. Don Barrell
7. Darren Fox (c)
8. Joe Vandermolen
Replacements: 16. Charlie Clare, 17. Ben Cooper, 18. Ben Gulliver 19. Tom Armes, 20. Darryl Veenendaal, 21. Jake Sharp, 22. James Pritchard.
Bedford Offy
In fact, wasn't Baldwin coming to us a couple of seasons ago?
Zandra YaPoI
YaPoI - Yorkshire and Proud of It
'proficiscor in una'
Re weather, it is improving down here and the likelyhood is that it will be dry and bright (bring your sunglasses! - for our kit that is, not the sun!). This means that, if we can get decent posession our backs will have a good track to perform on.
Having a "running" stand-off means a few injuries can be expected so we definitely need two good number 10s, ideally in each match-day squad. It makes a change from cleanest-shirt-at-the-end-of-the game Joe, who avoided injury (and most bodily contact).
The Leeds' boys have woken up!
Zandra YaPoI
YaPoI - Yorkshire and Proud of It
'proficiscor in una'
Can we hold onto him thats the next question ?
sent off carried off never backed off
Suffering on the Leeds and Yorkshire roller-coaster since 2001
Think back to the Bedford game at Otley last year when the Blues skated through our defence at will and you will see my point.
Loose head and Trundle will no doubt be along shortly to advise.
Suffering on the Leeds and Yorkshire roller-coaster since 2001
Waiting for the good times ...
..and waiting ....
... and waiting ...
