Leos 47 v Castleford 14

Report by Peter Cooke

On saturday,Leos welcomed Castleford to Crag Lane,for another Yorkshire 2 clash.Leos are gradually finding some form and consistency, after a disruptive start to the season and on saturday were able to welcome back former skipper Dave Robinson to the front row,in an otherwise settled team.

Castleford are having a more difficult return to Yorks 2 rugby,after being relegated last season and losing a number of senior players.It was good to see Leos vice captain James Knibbs,who should return before Christmas,on the touchline,together with James Henry still recovering from injury,whilst there was a sprinkling of distinguished alumni amongst the crowd,including Chris Hall,Paul Marshall and Mike Craven.

In still but again very soft conditions,the trend for the game was set at the first breakdown,when Castleford were penalised for not rolling away and robert gamage found a terrific kick to the corner.Jordache Myerscough rose majestically, Lenny Lane carried the entire Castleford pack infield,before Richie Howells released Gareth Chesters to the left,who brushed aside a couple of defenders,for the first score on 4 mins,with Dave Barden adding the extras.

Unfortunately,the visitors were constantly penalised for the next 10 mins,partly for technical offences at the breakdown,but more disturbingly for a number of "off the ball incidents" leading to Danny Thompson having to leave the field with a facial injury.

When some rugby was allowed to break out,more good lineout work,released quick ball to the threequarters and Pete Goodwin showed great pace to race in at the corner on 18mins.Castleford were very competitive at the scrum but solid work from the front five,allowed Andy Walker to make an initial break and link with robert gamage,whose perfectly weighted inside ball to Tom Bindloss,saw the full back score on 24 mins.

When the visitors chose to play rugby,they were dangerous on the counter attack,with good pace being shown by their back three.However,further penalties saw them being driven back to the corner,where Pete Goodwin reacted quickest to a further penalty decision and squeezed in at the corner,for the bonus point try and a score of 22 - 0 on 29 mins.

Leos increased their lead to 25 points,with a well struck penalty.However,Castleford showed what they are capable of shortly before half time,when their full back picked up a loose ball,to send their right winger in for a good long range try and a half time score of 25 - 7.

Leos used their full contingent of subs,with Jonny Moore, Ed Connell and James Debenham coming on for the second half, but the game was to follow a similar pattern to the first half. Robert Gamage was finding great distance from hand Jonny ,Moore was distributing well from fly half and Martin McIntosh and Andy Walker were organising numerous driving mauls.

The only real competition was in the front row, but gradually Dave Robinson, Martin McIntosh and Ed Connell were gaining the upper hand and from another solid base, Lenny Lane was able to break away and run almost unchallenged from 30m,for the first try of the second period.

The game did settle down a little and the visitors countered impressively from their own half.However,the Leos forwards were far tighter and drove down centre field, led by Jordache Myerscough and Gareth Chesters.The visitors defence was drawn in, Dave Barden exposed the blind side,for Tom Bindloss to make the extra man and James Lund to confidently step inside the final defender on 53mins.Dave Barden extras made the score 37 - 7.

A long,speculative down field kick by Jonny Moore,was enthusiastically chased by Pete Goodwin,who received his reward,by charging down the attempted clearance and last seasons leading try scorer for Sheffield Medics,completed his first hat trick for Leos.

The champagne moment came,with the return of Stuart Baker to the front row.Seizing on a loose ball,he brilliantly handed off the first defender,side stepped another,accelerated some 30m,only to be held up over the line by their scrum half,who did superbly well to deny the try.However the pressure was to tell,as the ball was swiftly moved to the right,where Mark Winter had far too much pace and scored Leos eighth try and a score of 47 - 7.

Many of the Castleford players were displaying the right type of spirit and they continued to defend their line with pride.Late in the game,after superb defensive work,they again broke out and went some 70 m,before somehow Richie Howells and Tom Bindloss managed to get back and make last ditched tackles.Unfortunately,another act of indiscretion followed, to spoil, what was a deserved second try and a final score of 47 - 14.The final act of the game being a spiralling kick to touch, from second row James Debenham.

In many ways this was a totally unsatisfactory game,but Leos emerged relatively unscathed whilst it was certainly a culture shock for the exchange referee from the yacht and golf clubs of the Wirral,who generally did well in desperately difficult circumstances.

Elsewhere,Selby maintained their lead,with a comfortable win over West Park,Moortown overcame Skipton in a basement battle,whilst after a good run,next weeks opponents Salem,went down at Hullensians.Next weekend,games revert to 2.15pm k.o's and following the away game at Bradford,there is ofcourse the Bonfire Night Extravaganza at Crag Lane.

Leos:
Bindloss Goodwin,Winter,Thompson,Lund,Gammage,Barden,Robinson,
McIntosh,Baker,Myerscough,Chesters,Debenham,Walker,Lane,
Howells,Connell,Moore

Below is copy of report from Castleford website

Leodiensians 47 v Castleford RUFC 1XV 14
Castleford continue to find life difficult in Yorkshire 2 as they were defeated at Leeds.

With debutantes Craig Brown in the back row and Andy Ellis in the centre Castleford were looking for improvement from the previous week. However the hosts started the stronger and soon had their first try.

Although the Castleford pack defended strongly on their own line a monopoly of possession to Leos soon took its toil and the hosts stretched their lead.

After some sustained pressure on the Castleford line the ball went loose and was gratefully picked up by Wayne Thomas who fed out across the backs to smartly handle and break clear for winger Chris Brown to race 50 metres and feed the supporting Martin Dye to score the best try of the match. Ian Mattison duly converted.

However, this was the last Castleford score of the half and further Leos’ scores left the visitors down 23-7 at half time.

The second half continued as the first with the same pattern as Castleford were mainly on the defensive; whilst in general the defence held firm, unfortunately, defensive lapses let Leos in for scores on a regular basis.However, valiantly, the Castleford lads did not give up and enjoyed a successful last 15 minutes when they turned the tide on Leos and started to put the home side under some pressure.

Both Alistair O’Gara and Chris Brown went close before some sustained pressure by the Castleford pack led to Craig Brown being driven over close to the posts for a well deserved try, converted by Ian Mattison. The final score was 47-14

For Castleford Craig Brown and Chris Redfearn were the stand out forwards and Andy Ellis made an excellent debut. Another debutant Tom Alexander came off the bench to show some nice touches.