By Keith Jenner
November 16 2003

The staff looked bored in the bar at half past seven when we arrived at Headingley. We bought a beer and settled down at one on the many available tables. After about ten minutes, we got bored of watching Coronation Street and decided to make our way to our seats.

The Steward was surprised to see us. “somebody's come all the way from London” he said. We had to disappoint him by saying that we'd actually only travelled from Barnsley. He checked our tickets and warned us to watch the crush as we entered the stands.

When we got to our seats we realised that the steward was probably quite impressed with our 25 mile trek from South Yorkshire. There were three people in the whole block (about 10 rows of 15 seats). After a few minutes the bulk of the Quins travelling support turned up and sat across the walkway from us, which instantly made it about the most full area in the ground. It was decided that people should sit wherever they wanted. We could have had a whole row each.

There has already been plenty of debate about whether it is right to play these games on a Friday evening. I think the attendance of 1,238 answers the question. The Leeds management have wasted a golden opportunity to try to spread the Rugby Union word in Yorkshire. On the back of the increased publicity which the game is enjoying during the World Cup they could surely have taken the opportunity to attract new supporters. Reduce the ticket price and advertise in the right places and some people will have turned up to have a look. I know from experience that it doesn't cost much to knock out flyers which can be delivered to the local area. Maybe I'm being unfair to the Leeds marketing people and they have already done that, but the potential new supporter isn't going to spend £12 to watch a game on a Friday night when the pub beckons instead. They pay be more interested in giving it a go for a fiver on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Leeds fans have argued that supporters are busy playing on Saturdays, but that view misses the fact that most potential supporters don't have any interest in Rugby at the moment. The marketing must focus on these people or the potential market is very limited. Another argument is that on Saturdays the competition from other sports (i.e. Football) is too great. Well there were certainly plenty of people wandering aimlessly around Leeds City Centre on Saturday afternoon who must be target customers.

Anyway, enough of the rant. In reflection, it was probably a good job that Leeds didn't manage (or even try) to fill the ground up with Rugby novices eager to get their first taste of live Rugby Union. The game was better as a spectacle than the league encounter two weeks ago, but it wasn't the type of match which would convert the newcomer. Someone with no knowledge of the laws would have one advantage over the majority of spectators who did turn up in that they probably wouldn't have noticed the terrible refereeing display (although if they were seated anywhere near the Quins supporters then they would have had an idea that he wasn't popular). Basically, it was one of the most inept performances by a referee that I can remember seeing.

When considering what I was going to write in this report, the thing that has given me most to think about was the referee. How much did he affect the result with his “interesting” decisions. The conclusion that I have reached is that we probably shouldn't consider ourselves too unlucky. Overall, the best team on the night won and as Quins supporters we probably only noticed the decisions that went against us. I'm sure that Leeds could point out a few that they feel aggrieved about as well.

That said however, I must say that we were very unlucky not to have been awarded a try mid way through the first half (actually, we had two tries which looked good disallowed and there was a case for a penalty try) and if we had scored it would have made the score 7-7 and perhaps things may have progressed differently from there. It should also be noted that Mark Evans felt that the players may have lost focus in the second half due to frustration at some of the decisions.

So to the game. In the first half Leeds had the advantage of the wind. It had been raining for most of the afternoon and the pitch was obviously wet. During the match itself the rain appeared to be intermittent and not as heavy as it had been earlier (it looked quite light from the stands but was probably worse than it appeared).

Leeds kicked off with a low kick and we were immediately under a bit of pressure but Burke kicked to touch and, encouragingly, we won the first Leeds lineout and again Burke kicked to touch. This time the lineout was disrupted, but Leeds won possession. An early high kick by Hodge into our 22 was well taken by Taumalolo.

Leeds had been looking forward to the return of Diego Albanese from the Australia, but with one of his first touches of the ball he badly sliced a kick which went out without making much ground. Unfortunately for Quins this was one of the few errors he made and overall I thought he had an impressive first game back.

Quins managed to secure possession from the line out and soon afterwards we challenged well and almost won another Leeds throw. The lineout was working well, but we seemed unable to get out of our half and, when a penalty was awarded to Leeds it was kicked to touch inside our 22.

The ball was won by Leeds and was soon passed along the line where the move appeared to break down behind one of the strategically positioned posts which always manage to obscure your view at the crucial moment. The referee obviously saw something because he signalled the penalty try and it was 5-0 to Leeds after 6 minutes. I can't comment on this decision, but it has been questioned elsewhere. We will have to wait until The Rugby Club on Thursday to make our minds up.

Hodge converted and from the restart Leeds appeared to knock on, but it wasn't given. Play was soon back in the Quins 22 and a Leeds maul was heading towards our line. It was stopped just short and Quins were awarded a scrum. Perhaps Leeds were unlucky with the ref's decision in this case.

A couple of good breaks followed, first from Mel Deane, who took the ball out of our 22, but possession was soon lost and Phil Christophers broke back and it looked like a good scoring opportunity until his pass went to Diprose about 10m out and the ball was cleared to half way.

Leeds were awarded a penalty on our 10m line for Quins coming in from the side. Vos seemed to disagree with the decision and has quite a long chat with the ref before Hodge kicked to the left of the posts.

After 12 minutes, Leeds had had almost all of the possession and the game had been played almost entirely in the Quins half. Quins had a scrum which was disrupted by Leeds and they won the ball. We had obviously knocked on at the scrum as the ref was playing an advantage. This was lucky for Leeds as a pass was intercepted by a Quins player and play was brought back for another scrum.

The touch judge on the South side then presented us with a comic moment as he tried to understand the laws regarding kicking the ball out on the full. First Monye kicked from within his 22 and the touch judge started heading towards where he had kicked it from before his error was pointed out to him. From the lineout, a Leeds player, who was outside his 22, kicked out on the full and the touch judge ran to where it had gone out. There was a brief discussion between him and the referee before play was taken back to where the kick was taken.

After 16 minutes, Quins were awarded a penalty for an infringement at a ruck just over 40 metres out which was kicked to touch on the 22. I assumed at the time that it was out of Burke's range against the wind, but when another penalty was given at the lineout this was also kicked to the corner. A Leeds player was given a warning by the referee.

Quins had a lineout 5m out and advantage was being played for offside against Leeds. The ball came back and was punted through for Monye to chase. He was the first there and certainly seemed to ground the ball, but the referee disagreed and play was brought back for the penalty.

Once again the penalty was kicked to the corner and another maul formed from the lineout. Again Leeds were penalised and were given another warning. Thoughts were certainly turning to a penalty try at this point.

Again the penalty was kicked to touch and the defence was deemed to be legal this time. Quins were pushed back and the ball was passed to the backs. It was here that Leeds were found to be offside again and another penalty was awarded. This time James Ponton, the Leeds flanker was sent to the sin bin.

There was a long delay as Duncan Hodge was stretchered off with a nasty looking injury and play was delayed for more than five minutes. Hodge apparently had an operation on his elbow almost immediately and looks to be out for quite a while. His place was taken by Gordon Ross, recently arrived back from Australia.

Quins opted to take the scrum 5 metres out and Ugo was put through for the try from a set move. The Quins supporters were celebrating, but the referee was signalling a penalty to Leeds for crossing. The ball was cleared and Leeds had escaped without conceding any points.

Almost immediately Quins were on the attack again with another break from Mel Deane. He passed to Keogh who looked to be clear but once again a penalty was awarded for crossing.

Roy Winters was bought on to replace Pat Sanderson, I assume that this was due to injury, but Sanderson looked to be OK as he went off.

Leeds then had a good chance to score when Taumalolo dropped a high kick in the Quins 22. The ball went backwards but Leeds players were first to it and the Quins defence was scrambled. Luckily Leeds knocked on from the resulting play. However, they were soon awarded a penalty in front of the post which was kicked by Ross to make the score 10-0 after 31 minutes.

The remainder of the sin bin was seen out by Leeds without any further score, although Quins looked threatening on occasions. Firstly there was a good break from Vos who passed to Chris Bell, who was almost through the defence. Leeds managed to gain possession and cleared to touch. Then the ball was moved wide by Quins and Monye took a pass at pace on his wing. He still had a couple of defenders to beat but play was called back because the pass to Monye was adjudged to be forward (it looked OK to me).

The remainder of the second half was fairly uneventful, except for a good break by Albanese and a worrying moment when a cross field kick by Leeds was tapped backwards by Mike Worsley, but was collected by a Leeds player. He was isolated though and was penalised for holding on when tackled.

10-0 at half time and the game was still there to be won in the second half. Quins had the wind behind them now, but it didn't appear to be as strong as in the first half.

Early on the play was almost all in Leeds half, but it was quite scrappy. Dan Scarborough, who I had barely noticed in the first half knocked on and then lost the ball to Diprose, who punted through for Monye to chase, but it went into touch. Scarborough was soon replaced by David Rees.

After 53 minutes, Quins were awarded a penalty 45 metres out and this time Burke went for the posts and brought the score back to 10-3. Quins had had the best of the second half so far, but Leeds now had a sustained period of pressure and the Quins defence looked a little weak as some first tackles were missed. Leeds couldn't capitalise on this though and the defense soon improved.

On 57 minutes Ceri Jones, Laurent Gomez and Karl Rudski, who had been receiving instructions from Mark Evans on the touchline were brought on to replace Mike Worsley, Jon Dawson and Bill Davison. They immediately made their presence felt as they managed to push a Leeds scrum back about 10 metres. Leeds kept possession but they were under a lot of pressure. They did manage to create an overlap soon afterwards though and they had players queuing up on their right wing with only Monye to defend. He did very well though and caught Phil Christophers with the ball and drove him back 5 metres. The chant of “Ugo, Ugo” went up from the Quins support.

As the game entered the final quarter Quins were kicking a lot more than they had earlier in the game. Presumably they had been keeping the ball in hand more in the first half due to the wind. They had an attacking lineout about 30 metres out but unfortunately the throw was too long and was collected by a Leeds player.

The Leeds scrum was still being put under a lot of pressure and more than once it was turned through 90 degrees but the referee didn't seem impressed and play was allowed to continue.

Leeds were awarded another penalty after 65 minutes for hands in the ruck and it was converted from the 22 by Gordon Ross to take the lead back to 10 points.

Another substitution was made by Quins as Andy Dunne was brought on for Paul Burke. There was then a golden scoring opportunity when Chris Bell made another break and passed to Dunne. His pass to Taumalolo wasn't good though and the ball was knocked forward. From our angle it looked as if the try would have been scored had the pass gone to hand.

The lead was reduced to 7 points again after 72 minutes when Leeds were penalised for an infringement at a line out 20 metres out, and on 75 minutes came an opportunity to level the scores when another penalty was kicked to the corner. The opportunity was wasted though as Leeds secured the ball from the lineout. Quins last chance had been blown.

The final five minutes were fairly uneventful as Quins struggled to mount another challenge and they didn't look like scoring. The referee gave us another fun moment when a Leeds kick went dead behind the posts and the referee appeared to look to the touchjudge to ask him what to do. Between them they worked it out and Quins were awarded the scrum where the kick was made.

Overall, the best team on the night won, despite the referee. However, there wasn't much between the two teams and we certainly had the opportunity to win the game. There were two excellent try scoring opportunities late on in the game and both of them were wasted. The match at the Stoop in two weeks time will be an interesting one and I expect Quins to win it convincingly.

At the post match press conference, Phil Davies said that he felt that Leeds had achieved a lot in the last week and that there were lots of changes with the World Cup players coming back. It was good to see Albanese back and the back three are very threatening.

When asked about the penalty try he said that he thought it was a good decision and he thought the ref had a good game.

As you would imagine, Mark Evans wasn't quite so pleased with the referee and he used the phrase “the referee saw what he saw” a number of times. The players had all been confident that Monye had grounded the ball for the first disallowed try and there did seem to be confusion as to why the second hadn't been given. It was a set piece move which worked as planned and no crossing is involved. The referees “interesting interpretation of 90 degrees” was also mentioned.

Evans felt that the main difference between the teams was in the tackle area where Leeds seemed to dominate. They played with a lot of intensity whilst Quins seemed to be a bit listless. He couldn't explain why that was.

It is unusual for Quins to get outplayed at the breakdown and as a result we struggled to get any momentum.

Finally, he said that at half time he felt that 10-0 wasn't too bad (although we should have been closer) but we didn't play well in the second half.

The press conference broke up and I made my way back to the bar where the staff were hoovering up and the only customers appeard to be Quins supporters getting ready for the long trek back to London. I bet the pubs in Headingley were busy though.