Sing when we're winning but...

This report will be briefer than usual as it is painful to write!

Leos slipped to only their 2nd league defeat of the season when they encountered a resolute West Leeds at the Crag on Saturday.

As the unseasonably warm weather continued, Leos entered the game with high expectations. Whilst West Leeds have previous in terms of turning Leos over, Leos were able to select a strong looking line up and the respective league positions hinted at a decent chance of a home victory. Perhaps this was the problem.

A late injury to Mark Winter forced a slight re-jigging of the backline, but Leos started the brighter of the two sides. However, two early chances went begging, and this seemed to knock Leos off their stride. An early Wainwright penalty was scant reward for the early fluency, and dogged defence from West Leeds prevented any momentum being maintained.

West Leeds then took control of the game when their Billy Whizz right winger, a constant thorn in the Leonine paw all afternoon, zipped away from the defence to score out wide. A subsequent Dale Breakwell penalty pushed the lead to 8-3, and to say West Leeds were now in the game would be like saying The Titanic had flotation issues.

Leos closed the gap with another Wainwright penalty, but were struggling to contain a West Leeds side that had clearly come, not only to contain, but to attack out wide at every opportunity, something Leos had not faced in recent weeks.

The decisive score came early in the second half when a short lineout was met with Leos demonstrating the Rip van Winkle approach to defending. The conversion was slotted and closed the scoring for the day at 15-6.

This defeat had less to do with Leos underperforming marginally on the day, and more to do with the outstanding effort, determination and commitment of the West Leeds players, who repeatedly thwarted Leos increasingly dangerous attacks with vital turnovers.. They backed up a tremendous defensive performance with a welcome ambition to play their own game and get the ball out to their dangerous outside backs at every opportunity. Come the final whistle, Leos had no complaints and had to accept that the better team had endured.

All is not gloom and doom at The Crag, though, Leos learned valuable lessons on the day, including the Y2 Circle of Insanity lesson that anyone in Y2 can get a result on their day. Encouragement can also be taken from the performances of new boys Stewart Heale and Johnny Crockett the Leos Rocket, who had an outstanding debut on his 2nd half introduction.