Yorkshire Carnegie
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
By Hurting Hax
October 5 2014
The film of that title may have been a western, but it sums up today’s events at Meadow Lane down to a tee. Yorkshire, (Leeds, Carnegie, Blues), or whatever else you want to call them , gave their travelling band of fans glimpses of them all.
It was a game of two distinct halves. In the first half Nottingham never looked capable of scoring a try, They rarely ventured into Leeds’ 22 thanks to some good first up tackling, and Leeds put together some good phases of attacking play which was rewarded with an interval lead of 17 points to 6.
The good points first. Both sides had missed penalties, but on 10 minutes Leeds took advantage of Notts overthrowing at a line out, and Ben Harris scored what must be a contender for try of the season. He burst through on halfway, and despite the efforts of the home defenders he shrugged them off and galloped to the line to score. Leonard tagged on the extras and Leeds were up and running. Leonard and Mugford exchanged penalties, but on the stroke of half time, Leeds chose to kick a penalty to touch, and from the resulting maul powered over the whitewash, Tideswell being credited with the try which Leonard again converted.
Sadly in between these events, came the bad. Leeds picked up another yellow card, this time Ben Harris being the recipient as Mr Gamage reached into his pocket. Mugford slotted the penalty over, but Leeds’ try on the stroke of half time, gave us hope we could win the game.
There was nothing good about the second half. The Notts kick off went directly to touch, but at the scrum we concede another penalty. Within two minutes of the restart, Harris was back on, but 7 minutes later he was penalised again, and Ming took the wise decision to replace him before another card came our way. Harris had caused havoc with his running, and we had lost a big weapon. Less than a minute later Notts had a pushover try, and though Leonard increased the lead to 7 with another penalty, the signs were ominous.
Replacements were coming too quickly for my liking, Leeds were disjointed and on 71 minutes another pushover try, and conversion brought the scores level. Both tries were conceded too easily, Leeds need to work on stopping this happening. Leeds could not keep the ball, and when Georgiou, (who looked our most dangerous player for the 9 minutes he was on), and Leonard threw shocking passes in our own half, Leeds conceded a penalty, and Oli Goss received a yellow card. The penalty was good but hard as Leeds tried; it was not to be their day. Twice Georgiou made breaks, but on both occasions was pulled back, firstly for crossing, and then a forward pass. The first offence resulted in Notts increasing their lead to 6 points, but there was one more chance for Leeds. Jonah Holmes, (who never got a decent pass all afternoon), went for a gap, and only a desperate ankle tap prevented him racing clear.
Leeds lost today because they made error after error. They didn’t look after the ball, they conceded numerous penalties and free kicks all over the pitch, and the kicking from hand was shocking. Another 2 yellow cards as well and all in all a disappointing result. To add insult to injury, Myerscough and Jones also came off with nasty looking injuries, the last thing we need at the minute
Unlike last season when Leeds was a threat all across the park, this season they have one plan. Give the egg to Buzz, he will sort it out. He was absolutely shattered at the end of today, and he wins the my bottle of pop by a country mile
The ugly, again, came in the way the scrums were managed by the officials, Not necessarily any bias, but they seemed quite happy to reset scrum after scrum, and this sort of display will not bring back the missing crowds. We now have 3 weeks rest let us hope we can use the break to get fired up and push our way up the table.
COME ON LEEDS
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05/10/2014 20:25
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:10:16:18:48:04 by Gelbel.
Seem miles off last seasons's performance. Does GM really know what he is doing??....Will he now quickly get to grips with the deficit given a few weeks breathing space...or is he underfunded and professionally out of his depth? Words count for nowt. Urgent Action...to stem the tide...is what is really needed...or there will be no fan base left!!
Certainly cant see much room for optimism? And that's not like me....Can we please have some straight talking....or are we witnessing the demise of Leeds Rugby.
17-6 up and throw it away. At this rate we might be playing Ealing next year...or ( looking at their investment ) maybe not!!
COME ON LEEDS.
We've been through it all together.
We weren't awful for all the game - we had a decent first half. We will get better.
But we also need to stop harking back to last year. Last year we had a team, the majority of who had been together for 2 years. A new coach yes, but one who inherited a settled team and had all of pre-season to work with them.
This year: a number of key players left, we have new players, a new coach who took over 4 days before the first game, and injuries to a number of players who stayed.
Think we need to temper expectations, and most importantly get behind the team.
The Bad = Silly and persistent basic mistakes.
The Ugly = Discipline.
It is ok to blame ref's and their assistants, but the above three aspects of the game are very simply down to the players on the field. Cut out the Bad and the Ugly and what are you left with?...Good!
But, we are getting better........no red card, then by (apparently) throwing the game away, we did get a loosing bonus point.
Or am I being deluded?
Onwards and upwards
Up the Yorkshire TYKES !
