Just before I left home to go to LS6 this afternoon my wife said that there did not seem to be much joy in these trips. Joy? I am a Leeds Carnegie supporter for goodness sake. Today we entertained Jersey at Headingley and although we ran out comfortable winners in the end we certainly made hard work of it. So what else is new?...
J-Lo picked Hughes to start at 10 today & the cognoscenti were shaking their heads before the kick off. When the game got underway we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of possession that we secured and also by the fact that, in the main, we managed to hold on to it.
The first score came following a searing break by Hampson who continues to frustrate the supporters with his delayed put ins. However in open play he is a live wire and raced into the Jersey half before offloading to Green who was in the outside centre position. In line with his all round excellent game he whipped the ball out to the Doc who pinned his ears back and scored in the corner. Hughes muffed the extras but we continued to dominate. On virtually their first sortie into our half Jersey were awarded a penalty which their 10 popped over to make it 5-3. Hmm.
The next good bit was a ruck near the Jersey line. Where we might have seen Buzz crash over we were instead treated to a neat sidestep by the skipper before crossing the whitewash. Hughes converted and everything was right with the world. We continued to dominate without converting that domination into more points.
On their second visit to our half Jersey scored a fine try which they converted meaning we went in at the break with a slender lead, 12-10. The second period saw an increase in mistakes by both sides. Hughes stretched the lead with 3 penalties ( to one by Jersey) before being replaced by Lozzer. Both sides made numerous substitutions. Matt Smith came on for Hannay & made an immediate impact. Imiolek looked like a centre when he broke out of our 22. There were some nice moves and offloads but as usual we made mistakes which gifted Jersey both possession and territory.
After Lozzer had stretched the lead to 24-13 with a penalty we were once again camped in the visitors 22. Griffin, who had been busy all afternoon, was waving and jumping up and down like a mad thing. Lozzer made a note of this and when he got the ball from Hampo he kicked over the defence for the corner. Griffin charged through and made a full length dive to touch down before the ball went dead. 29-13 and the score finally reflected the game.
After last week's debacle we could easily have been turned over today. Jersey are a better side than they were last season. We secured enough decent ball to ensure a win and defended well when our mistakes enabled the visitors to press for a second try. Young Beck had a good game, disrupting and stealing lineouts and generally keeping busy with his tackling, plus a couple of breaks out of our 22. Green was always in the thick of it as was Smith when he came on. But for me the Mom award goes to Josh Griffin who capped a good game with a great try.
And finally it was nice to see Elvis come on for the visitors. I knew, deep down, that he wasn't dead!
Thank you Lurker, pretty much how I saw it, although I'm not sure Jersey are better than they were last year. Of the returning players, Griffin, Lockwood and Beck have certainly given J-Lo something to think about for next week, and I agree Smith certainly made a big contribution when he came on, as did Wacker.
COME ON LEEDS.
We've been through it all together.
Apparently Stevie was being treated for a injury as the game ended. Does anybody know if it was anything serious?
Also spoke to Two Sacks after the game, His pot comes off on Friday, and he will be playing in December, at least I think that is what he said.
COME ON LEEDS.
We've been through it all together.
Has anybody worked out what's gone wrong with the lineout lately? It was an improvement on last week but LS are that much better than Jersey. Thankfully we pinched some of their throw-ins today at the front, but when we missed the back of the line in promising positions we played into their spoiling tactics - net result a much tighter game than expected.
Good point Hax, someone we are missing at the momwnt, and someone I hope we will extend contracts with before the Top 14 sides come calling, with their big cheque book.
almostatyke I saw him torpedo a low kick into touch (directly) and after that he has limping. Hopefully not serious.
And he did call the physio over. But rather than have the magic sponge took a drink of water. Perhaps having some treatment on the pitch might've drawn Jersey's attention to a possible injury and they might've targeted him?
Number of good personal performances in the pack but as a unit we were disappointing. Crucial line outs lost, felt Jersey had a slight edge in the scrums, and thought the clear out in the rucks was poor. Hampson struggled to clear the ball under pressure and his service wasn't the best.
Jersey at home should definitely have been a 5-pointer. We started well enough and had a huge amount of possession but squandered most of it. Couple of observations. Our bench made us better their bench did not. Too many stupid errors again. Trying to run out from our own try-line should not be the default option. If it's on then go for it otherwise use the boot. Too much high-risk rugby puts us under pressure in defence. I've yet to see Hannay have a good game in a Leeds shirt. Scrum and line-out need improvement. Do we have a captain? Is he allowed to talk to the ref?
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