Yorkshire derbies never go to plan and just to calm our nerves on a Friday night at Headingley stadium, next up at the Arena of Legends are our Yorkshire friends Doncaster Knights...
Doncaster have started well, very well. Only losing two games so far to Welsh and Titans and are currently proudly sitting in forth place, higher than Welsh, Bedford and their South Yorks neigh-bours, Titans. Not at all shabby for a team who only managed to get back in the Championship in 2014. Most of us who have been to Castle Park were thrilled at that news as it means once we have wiped the tears of defeat away from our eyes or indeed removed the matchsticks from our eyes that was keeping them open, we can have more Cow Pie and Real Ale. Donny really are our bogey team, they always up their game against us, even more so now we have branded ourselves as ‘Yorkshire’s Team’.
So who should we be looking out for at Headingley this Friday under the lights? Donny’s main danger man seems to be Latu Makaafi, their Tongan No 8, who has 8 tries under his belt so far this season. To put that into perspective it is one more than Buzz scored all last season in the league, so some rate of scoring, no one else in their team is near. Seems Donny favour forward dominated play and it looks as if this one will be a battle of the forwards. Hopefully our stealthy backs will circle like vultures and pick off what’s left.
Against Ealing Trailfinders, Doncaster were without 6 first team players due to injury so we don’t know if the beautifully named Douglas Flockhart will be taking on kicking duties for this game.
I would love to have given you all some more info on the Donny team however it looks like their Offy has been hacked and all I get when I go there are offers of a ‘Brand New FREE iPhone 6s’! See, all you Offy critics, our Offy never gets hacked, although maybe it should……..but that is an-other debate for another day!
And on to us. Sunday’s win at Pirates probably wasn’t as well received as what it should have been. Always a hard place to go and play rugby, the weather and pitch were against us and we still left with a BP win in a match we would probably have lost in seasons gone by. I suspect with Brush’s rotation system, there will be some changes, I could go on for pages detailing what I think will happen but I’d be wrong so I will leave that up to Brush.
What I do know is this WILL be a hard fought game, but if Donny have injuries, we tame the Beast at 8 and our players finally click like they have been threatening to do, I think we just might knock that annoying little Capuchin Monkey not only off our backs, but into the middle of next week.
Good preview. I only hope that monkey is not knocked into the middle of next week. Don't we play Bristol then. If it is knocked anywhere it has got to be to kingdom come! A hard fought game with our backs keeping ball in hand and dominating. Another win for Leeds!
3 years ago almost to the day (5th Oct) we played Doncaster at home on a Friday night.
We won 42-7
2 tries apiece for Curtis Wilson and Sam Lockwood and one each for Jamel Chisholm and Christian Georgiou. Joe Ford converted 3 of them and slotted 2 penalties.
Matt Challinor replied for the Knights, converted by Jamie Lennard.
A repeat of that result would certainly set the weekend up very nicely from our point of view!
Useless fact:
Georgious try in that game was the last ever to be scored on the old Headingley pitch before it was dug up and replaced with the current all singing, all dancing one.
Would of put the house on us at half time not scoring a try 2nd half, reckon they had a redpath rocket still ringing in the ears much more accomplished 2nd half playing basic rugby
1st half 2 mistakes 2 tries and consistently kicking the ball down donny throats who were more than happy to run ball back at us, to be fair to Donny the least they deserved was the losing bonus point as they had a go lots of running blockers but if "sir" don't see it fair play to them,
Leonard had a shocker I'm afraid his goal kicking was excellent but decision making and kicking out of hand was poor, it has been mentioned too many times before that we kick too often and to be fair it would have been highlighted more tonight if the Donnny backs wore decent boots as they lost their footing too many times to count and did look dangerous with ball in hand
Loved the CG tackle in front of south stand during first half and SS did well with ball in hand, left happy with 4 points and top of league without hitting straps but Varndell and co will be licking their lips next week if we don't go back to basics and get the ball off the bloody island
Of course, the major step forward last night was managing to score in the Satsuma segment! I trust the shop was emptied of Carnegie gear after the game.
If I had all the money I've spent on drink ..... I'd spend it on drink.
Similar game, in many ways, to the Roth away match. Perhaps it is a "Local Derby" mode, designed to get monkeys removed, meaning the win is everything.
Leonard once again very predictable with ball in hand - especially kicking - but then his 100% place kicking won us the match as it was three tries all.
As the match went on, I thought Donny were struggling with injuries and becoming tired; something we cannot rely on when we play the better-resourced clubs in our division.
I wasn't born in Yorkshire but I got here as soon as I could
We won! However, still too many errors though, hard won ball given away too easily. Thought Beech and O'Donnell played well, Pilgrim not so, if he spent half the time watching the ball as he does pointing to the ref., and telling the opposition to get the ball in at the line out, he might play better!
COME ON LEEDS.
We've been through it all together.
Much better 2nd half. We must kick alot better though. Charged down 4 times at least. The chase must be faster too.
Nilson played well in loose rapping up there 6 numerous times.
Argee re bainbridge mom. He needs to take the others with him when he pushes up.
Long kick offs a far better plan. We messed up the short ones or gave away a pen.
Albert Fishwick Of course, the major step forward last night was managing to score in the Satsuma segment! I trust the shop was emptied of Carnegie gear after the game.
It was heaving - honestly, queueing out the doors.
Pretty good second half, presumably after BR had a quiet word with 'em at HT. The rolling mauls looked great, and successful, but wonder how they'll do with it against Bristol? Far too much kicking, which should be better used tactically instead of aimlessly. Donny looked impressive in first 20 mins with fast raiding from deep, but as said above they certainly ran out of steam. Still, however the result was achieved I reckon we'd have all taken that scoreline two hours earlier!
Interesting how little stick the officials get when we're winning though isn't it, no matter how they do their job?
Perhaps it's time Redpath tried a different half back pairing. It should have dawned on him by now that Pilgrim and Leonard are not going to ignite the backs. More awkward with Leonard as his place kicking is top class.
Possibly try Hodgson at 9. What's happened to Dudman, I wonder if he is still struggling with his hand?
On saying all that, we are still winning.
I like the idea of Hodgson and Leonard at half back. Think Leonard is a much better player than he showed last night and his goalkicking is excellent.
Was really disappointed with the ref. Thought a Premiership ref would have been much better than that. Agree with what was said about him on a different thread. Not poor but indifferent.
Pretty indifferent game I thought.....but due to work the first I have seen so I cannot be too judgemental. Kicking fom hand as has been said before garbage apart from one sublime clearance from Jonah .
Rolling mauls impressive but against better teams ?
Pilgrim has never been my top choice.
Seemed to lack the ability too offload properly....remember the days of J Lowes. Hopefully Sir Kev will remind them.
On a different note full marks to the PR department . Really good atmosphere with all the children and their hangers on....they even stayed quiet in the kicks.....aventually.
Yes, it was an encouraging second half. We def need to play like that for both halves next week to be in with a shout which will prove to be a difficult game.
Life is what you make of it - you only get 1 so enjoy it
Only a 4-pointer for Bristol, Scottish beaten by Pirates today, Welsh lost on Friday; our play may not always be pretty and we have a real test next week but this is a much better position thsn we have been in for several seasons.
If I had all the money I've spent on drink ..... I'd spend it on drink.
Sorry, you do not have permission to post/reply in this forum.
We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment.
We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals.
We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards.
If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing
abuse@sportnetwork.net