By Oopnorth on 15/9/2003
September 15 2003

Another beautiful day this summer heralded the arrival of the new season. The Headingley pitch looked perfect and a crowd of 4100 many bedecked in new replica kit were looking forward to seeing how their new teams would measure up.

Leeds dominated the first minute with a quick thrust after winning kick off ball, a dart down the left, and a quick switch and a lateral kick by Hodge just missing Dan Scarbrough and denying Leeds a great start. This was heady stuff and the Tykes had a five yard scrum and a further chance for early glory. However the first scrum put down the clearest marker for the events to come as Tykes were shunted off the ball and Bath proceeded to boss the next 39 minutes.

The Bath eight sustained an easy dominance throughout the first half proving superior in all aspects of play and Tykes made few forays out of their own half. Pressure told after 13 minutes and Bath converted a simple penalty in front of the posts. A poor restart kick going out on the full allowed Bath to demonstrate their scrum adavntage and with quick recyling they created space to put Zac Feanuti over. At this point it was all Bath as they won ball and stretched the Tykes defence which did not look as solid as last years. Bath were playing strong straightfoward power rugby and Tykes were struggling to cope. A second try followed soon after with Perry going in near the posts after more quick handling.

A knee injury to Stuart-Smith led to an early entry to the game for Alan Dickens.Tykes got on the board after 30 minutes with a simple penalty for Hodge but Bath soon took play back into the Tykes half and finished the first half with a slick Malone drop goal. At this point Tykes fans were praying for the whistle and a chance for the team to regroup. In truth we were lucky to be just at 3-20.

After half time Gary Powell had replaced Shelley and Dan Hyde took over the captaincy. However any hope that things would change much for Leeds looked misplaced as for the next 20 minutes events unfolded much as before with the team unable to secure their own ball in scrum or line out, pushed back in the mauls, losing ball in contact, and giving away penalties because of forward pressure. A penalty by Bath was soon followed by a failure to secure own line out ball which led to Daniel darting over for Bath on the left wing.

At this point however the Tykes rediscovered some of the passion of last year and began to compete better as Bath eased off because of tiredness or complacency. At last some quick hands created an opportunity for Rees to run in Leeds first try which was duly converted. Referee Rowden, who is not a Bath favourite, also awarded Leeds a penalty from half way immediately after the try and Hodge stroked it over. 13-28 appeared to give Leeds a glimmer of hope, however Bath surged into the Tykes half and scored and easy try through the middle by Crockett.

There followed 20 minutes of the most amazing rugby. Leeds realising that the only chance seemed to be to go for broke for a bonus point or two, ran from their own line and after a neat break from Christophers and several pairs of hands Dickens went over for a try of the season contender. This was followed by two further impressive bouts of running rugby as first Rigny then Scarbrough went over for tries. A win looked unlikely but two bonus points didn't. Bath were not finished though and on three occasions pack power got them into the Leeds half and Barkley kicking well converted three penalties to give Bath the spoils at 32-44.

After the game Phil Davies said that an inability to win ball combined with mistakes and penalty problems would lead to an unhappy season. Of the two teams Leeds have more to chew over. Bath despite having large player turnover looked a very powerful team especially upfront. Leeds on the other hand had no power or cohesion in the pack but do seem to have put together a back line of great attacking potential if they can get the ball and beef up central defence.

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