By Loosehead on 11/2/2003
February 11 2003

With Bottom placed Newcastle travelling to Headingley on a Friday night, could the Tykes at last put one over on their bogey side? The head-to-head record in the top flight before this game showed that Leeds were 0-4. Was Friday night the night to bring it back to 1-4?.

With the bad news that Leeds' Talisman Hooker Mark "Ronnie" Regan also ruled out through injury, alas it was not meant to be.

In front of the best crowd so far this season - over 7200 - the Tykes tore into the hapless Falcons from the off with some great driving by the forwards, and with a hand in the ruck the Tykes were awarded a penalty well within BVS range - 3-0 to the Tykes with barely 2 minutes on the board. With some aggressive rucking by the Tykes with the infamous All Black pick and carry from the base of the ruck the Tykes pack continued making inroads into the Falcons defence. Again Newcastle were caught on the hop, and again Leeds were awarded a penalty which BVS duly slotted over to make it 6-0 to Leeds and only 8 minutes played. The Tykes were looking a good bet to beat their bogey side.

With the game going well for Leeds into the first quarter Newcastle decided to join and make a game of it. A lot of sustained pressure and some good work by their forwards gave them their due reward with a penalty which was will within Wilko's range. The kicking machine hooked his kick pushing to the right of the upright.

The restart on the Leeds 22 saw Newcastle mount a serious assault on the Tykes line with a series of lineouts and scrums, but the Leeds defence held firm. With a great steal from a 5 metre scrum, the Leeds Tykes launched an audacious counter attack from their own line by Diego, the flying winger made a good 30 metres before being tackled.

Moving in to the latter stages of the first half the Falcons again laid siege to the Leeds line. Again they were rewarded with a penalty, and again Jonny missed the 3 points.

With Leeds winning the restart and another penalty to boot, BVS again added the 3 to make it 9-0 to Leeds with 40 minutes on the clock. From the restart Leeds set up a maul and with very little resistance the Tykes drove the Falcons back a good 20-25 metres. With the ball in touch the half time whistle went. Although it was not pretty the Tykes looked comfortably 9-0 up at half-time.

The Falcons made a few tactical changes at half-time and no doubt Rob Andrew read them the riot act (probably threatening a couple of them with their P45's!). Newcastle started the 2nd half with a bit more urgency; with a lot of sustained pressure Newcastle managed to win a lineout on the Leeds line with the throw to the middle. the Falcons 2nd row was upended and as result Tom Palmer spent 10 mins in the bin.

With only 7 forwards the Falcons took advantge of the numbers - from the lineout and a few rucks, Jonny was over in the corner, with a touch line conversion to come Jonny now decided it was time to put on his kicking boots and bagged the extra 2 points. 9-7 to the Falcons with 25 minutes to play it was now game on.

From this point it was more of the Falcons with Epi Taionnie making a lot of inroads into the Tykes defence causing a lot of problems, and for the remainder of the game it was the Falcons who had the possession and the territory. With subs from either side taking the field one notable piece of defence involved Scotty Benton who made a great tackle on Stephenson.

Still with a few minutes left it looked like Leeds were going to steal this game, but alas no, Newcastle were awarded a penalty and Jonny with his new kicking boots on, put over the goal to make the game 10-9 to the Falcons with barely minutes to go.

No doubt those with a weak disposition found the final 5-10 minutes too much to bear, but into injury time Leeds were awarded a penalty which BVS coolly slotted over to make the game 12-10 to the Tykes. Surely this was the last kick of the game, and another victory for Leeds Tykes? No! The referee decided there were several more minutes of game time left, so Newcastle kicked off again. From the re-start Leeds failed to find their touch, but a game of kicking tennis was averted when another Leeds kick was charged down into touch. With the lineout to Leeds the ball was overthrown and Newcastle made one final counter attack but Leeds defence held firm once again. However, the ball spurted out and Newcastle passed wide (and slightly forward!) to Hall who went over for the match winning try, and Wilko bagged the extra 2.

12-17, and the final whistle went. Leeds again failed to beat Newcastle at the 5th attempt. Whereas many people will say that Newcastle won this game, I favour that Leeds lost the game in injury time by not clearing their line.

I also note that the Falcons reviewer adds his/her two penn'orth regarding some unsporting barracking of the kicker when Jonny was kicking. From where I was stood in the South Stand I heard just as much being given to BVS. Whilst I dont condone barracking it does happen, but the players are professionals and can handle it.

All I will say on the matter is this: Newcastle were not as green as they were cabbage looking!

---