Yorkshire Carnegie
Bath gel better than Leeds
MoM in action
By Hax
September 6 2010
Leeds got the new season underway with a home defeat to expected title challengers Bath. The scoreline of 16 – 32 is fairly comprehensive, even more so when you consider the home side scored their only try at the end of the game.
However, the score does not tell the whole story. For the first 40 minutes Leeds had held the upper hand, playing most of the game in Bath territory, and controlling the scrum and the line out. Indeed, when Sam Vesty gave the visitors a three point lead, it was the first time Bath had ventured into the Leeds half. The lead didn’t last long, as Ceiron Thomas made amends for an earlier miss when he slotted two penalties between the sticks to give the hosts a 6 – 3 lead.
Bath had barely threatened, apart from a couple of bursts from Banahan that Leeds struggled to defend, yet the hosts had created four scoring opportunities. Denton and Blackett used their strength to go close, good play by the forwards sent Wentzel through a gap, only for his final pass to go to ground off a visitors defender, and Thomas, Mackay and Tadulala linked well to provide an opportunity only for Thomas to be penalised for pushing a defender as they chased the ball to the line.
It was therefore somewhat against the run of play when Banahan crashed through the middle to send Hape away, and though Tadulala made a great cover tackle, Bath moved the ball quickly along the line for the bendy one to ignore the overlap and crash through the attempted tackle to score Headingley’s first try of the season. Vesty kicked a good conversion, but on the stroke of half time, more Leeds pressure ended when Thomas kicked a good drop goal from 40 metres to bring Leeds to within one point of Bath. The general consensus was that Leeds had done well playing in to the wind, and there was optimism among the fans that Leeds could pull off an opening day victory.
What they had in their tea at half time, I don’t know, but there were spells when Leeds dropped their concentration, and clinically, Bath took full advantage to score three more tries and secure a bonus point. The first try was something of a comedy of errors. Tadulala chased a high kick into the Bath half and felled the bendy one with what already must be a candidate for tackle of the season. Amazingly, Leeds were penalised and Banahan, aided by some flimsy tackling took the visitors deep into Leeds territory. When they were awarded a scrum ten metres out, Claasens shipped the ball to Vesty who almost walked through a huge gap in the Leeds defence to cross beneath the posts. He added the extras, and suddenly Leeds was up against it. The deficit should have been reduced immediately when Leeds was awarded a penalty, but Thomas’ kick was poor and the chance was gone.
When Bath failed to find touch with a penalty, Blackett passed inside to Stephenson, who despite being under no pressure sliced his kick terribly into touch, and Leeds were defending again. However Leeds regained possession and moved the ball quickly along the line. Although in their own half they had a huge overlap, only for a needless forward pass to bring the move to a halt.
Leeds was still in with a shout, Steve Thompson had come on for Andy Titterell, and the scrum was still holding its own. Until, the 54th minute that is, when Juan Gomez was replaced by Phil Swainston. For the remainder of the game, Bath bossed the scrums, and for me this was the defining moment of the game. The pressure resulted in a penalty which Vesty converted to make the score 9 – 20, and the worry now, was that Leeds would capitulate and concede a lot of points.
Bath increased their lead when Claasens opened up Leeds’ defence with a delayed pass, and Carraro sped through and rounded Stephenson with ease before crossing under the posts. Vesty’s conversion made it 9 – 27.
Leeds enjoyed a period of territorial advantage, but, the harder they tried, the more mistakes they made. Michael Claasens got a deserved yellow card, (he deserves one every week), but Bath made light of his absence and from a scrum close to the Leeds line, Luke Watson picked up and strolled over to give Bath their bonus point try.
Leeds had a couple of highlights in the second half, Wentzel made a break down the far side, which Thompson carried on, and Burrell had half a chance when a Bath player dropped the ball behind him, but Burrell had neither the pace, nor experience to take advantage.
In the last minute Leeds were awarded a penalty, and Steve Thompson took a quick tap and burrowed over from close range. Leigh Hinton added the extras, and that was that.
The final score was disappointing, because in the first half Leeds had the better of their illustrious opponents. However, once they fell behind, too many of last seasons failings re-emerged. We need to cut out the needless errors, and we need to turn our territorial advantage into points. I also believe this side is far better than last season, but we still lack direction in the backs, and lack genuine pace. Why did we let our speed machine go?
Of the newcomers, I thought, Alonso, Browne and Tadulala did well, Mackay showed glimpse of what he can do, and Fury and Thommo did what they could coming off the bench. Stephenson is not a full back.
Man of the match? The whole pack did well until Juan went off, and I thought Tadulala and Blackett were our best backs, but on this occasion, my bottle of champers goes to Tom Denton, who just shades it from Daniel Browne and Kearnan Myall. We lost, yes, but so did Leicester, Saracens, Gloucester and Newcastle. There is a long, long way to go.
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06/09/2010 05:32
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:09:06:19:41:11 by Wildwillie.
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