Leos 37 v West Park Leeds 19

On a delightful,mild day,The Crag was looking in wonderful condition for this time in the season,offering ideal,dry conditions for the visit of relegation threatened West Park Leeds.

Leos enjoyed a comfortable 34 - 21 victory at The Sycamores earlier in the season,but it is still surprising to see the visitors in the bottom two of the table.

After a comprehensive fifty point victory last week,Leos were again forced into changes,with James Knibbs taking over as skipper in place of the injured Dave Robinson,allowing James Farad, to make his starting debut.A competition between him and James Haslam must surely be on the cards for next seasons nickname of The Body. Stu Norton came in on the wing, Nick Wainwright and James Henry continued their new half back combination,whilst the bench was looking particularly strong.

Both sides opened with enterprising play,but it was the visitors who struck first,when they stole a lineout,moved the ball quickly to their left,before the winger found the supporting full back Andy Cromack for a good touch down in the corner,after five minutes.

Leos responded immediately,when James Debenham took a high clearance and drove into the heart of the visitors, James Farad and Will Levitt won quick ball,allowing Nick Wainwright to intelligently swich play, James Henry and James Knibbs contined the attack,before a delightful short ball put Dave Barden through a gap,with the flanker accelerating to the line. James Henry conversion gave Leos the initiative.

Parks strength clearly laid in their set piece, with the front five of Stevens,Howard,Fear,Hartley and Warden particularly strong,but it was the Leos pack who were a quicker to the break down.From such turnover ball, Nick Wainwright,who looks a natural at scrum half,made a lovely clean break,supported by Tom Bindloss and Mark Winter,Leos made 60m,before the final pass was put down.Nevertheless both sides wanted to play open rugby,before Martin McIntosh and Lenny Lane trapped another WPL forward, Jordache Myerscough ripped the ball clear,for James Henry and Mark Winter to put John Sleight into space,before he stood up his opponent for a delightful 50m try in the left corner.After 18mins of an entertaining game,Leos lead by 12 - 5.

WPL had a number of threats,including a strong running full back in Andy Cromack and had real pace outwide on thw wings in Booth and Gamble,but were equally prone to a number of handling errors. Park were penalised for holding on and James Henry cleanly struck the 35m penalty. Leos 15 WPL 5.

The open style of football continued,with both sides coming close and WPL once being denied by a forward pass.Leos couldn't secure clean line out ball with the big visiting second rows in Hartley and Warden dominating,whilst the two front rows were having a fierce tussell in the scrums.However,solid ball from Ed Connell, Martin McIntosh and James Farad,allowed Lenny Lane and Nick Wainwright to link,the scrum half produced a mesmorising run beating three opponents,before Mark Winter selected a wonderful line of running to open the defence and scorch under the posts. James Henry added the two points to put Leos up 22- 5 after 32 mins.

A series of penalties put Park deep into Leos territory,but the structured defence held firm,thanks to important tackles from Ed Connell and Lenny Lane,before Leos disrupted WPL scrum ball,allowing Dave Barden to seize on the loose ball,before Tom Bindloss, James Knibbs and Stuart Norton combined to clear the line.A further James Henry penaly before half time gave the Leos a comfortable half time lead of 25-5.

An enjoyable,open half of rugby,with Leos needing to find a way of winning their own line out ball in order to ensure victory.

This was clearly demonstrated on resumption,when the visitors handled accurately from the kick off and made a clean break down the left,for Alistair Booth to score a good try in the corner.The difficult conversion was added,reducing the deficit to just 13 points.

Leos made changes,introducing Tim Fforde and James Forton for James Debenham and Martin McIntosh respectively,but Park continued to threaten.Winning a penalty,they elected to scrum rather than take the kick,but again the Leos pack repelled the danger,before a relieving kick was well gathered by their right winger, Luke Gamble who evaded the intial tackle,broke away and squeezed in at the corner for a really well worked individual try.Another good conversion produced a scoreline of 25 - 19 after 58mins.

WPL were now back in the game and thought they were in with a good shout of turning the match around.

Gareth Chesters replaced Will Levitt, West Park had bounced back with great determination as they have done over the years led by Ben Fear and Nick Hartley upfront but after absorbing a significant amount of WPL forward pressure Leos gradually worked their way upfield.

Aggressive defence forced further WPL errors,before an attempted clearance kick was charged down by James Henry.The fly half skilfully regathered the bouncing ball,before evading a tackle and touching down at the side of the posts to make his conversion easier.Unfortunately,he missed his easiest kick of the day,but the gap was now up to two scores and the bonus point secured.

Gareth Chesters, Tim Fforde, and James Fard were in the heart of the action.,Quick,clean ball was won, Jordache Myerscough who laid back the ball for Nick Wainwright,but the Park Skipper Bickerdyke killed the ball,saved a try but was sin binned for his efforts,.

As the game drew to a close.the penalty was missed,but Leos were now in control.Bickerdyke returned,but a second Park player was be sin binned for punching James Forton in front of the referee.Leos worked the ball right,swift accurate hands from Nick Wainwright, Stuart Norton and Tom Bindloss found Ed Connell loitering in midfield,but he demonstrated the soft hands of an improved squash player to release Jordache Myerscough,who carried a couple of defeated defenders over the line with him,for a final score of 37 - 19.

An enjoyable open exhibition of rugby by both sides,with the game well refereed by the North Yorkshire official.

This was once more a fiercely contested local derby with WPL contributing significantly.

The visitors were one of the most powerful packs, Leos have played this season and one would think they are too good to be relegated.

Whilst the visitors would say they overall probably won the forward battle,Leos were far more incisive and creative with ball in hand and were a constant threat to the visiting defence.

Elsewhere it seems that Dinnington may now be relegated,together with Bradford Salem from Yorks 1,whilst it appears to be between Goole and Baildon for the second promotion spot from Yorks 3,together with a dominant Wath side.Leos travel to Pocklington next week.
Report Peter Cooke
Leos scorers:Tries:Barden,Sleight,Winter,Henry,Myerscough Conversions,Henryx3 Penalties Henryx2
WPL Tries:Cromack,Booth,Gamble,ConversionsBoothx2
Leos:Bindloss,Sleight,Winter,Knibbs,Norton,Henry,Wainwright,Connell,McIntosh,Farad,Debenham Myerscough,Levitt,Barden,Lane,Fforde,Forton,Chesters
WPL cromak,booth,SBooth,Whitehaed,Gamble,McClure,Bickerdyke,Stevens,Howard,Fear,Hartley,Warden,Kilvington
,Stewart,Griffiths,Robinson,Coley,Kear