Hard Fought win in the Mud

Steady Rainfall which began in November was still falling on Saturday Morning as Leo's 2nd Xv welcomed York onto the back pitch which was resembling something more like the Somme than a playable rugby pitch but with both teams keen to expend some energy before the England game and Carl Walsh keen to Ref a game in the right spirit it went ahead.
With the 1st XV slowing getting players back there was a strength to the 2nd XV rarely seen in recent times and the game started in expected fashion with early carries providing difficult in the underfoot conditions and the bar of soap the ball had become. Leo's got their ball carriers into the game with Rob Byram and Lofty in the forwards and Leddy in the backs making the hard yards against an experienced York outfit.
Leo's struck first having made yards they were awarded a penalty which was promptly sent to touch 7m out. With Lofty calling the lineouts Dave Harrison found his man and from the resulting driving maul JD crashed over for a length of the 1m line effort. The conversion was missed but Leo's were playing with no little skill or commitment in attack or defence. York came back into the game gaining the upper hand in the scrums and crossed for a converted try to take a 7-5 lead into the shortened half time break.
The message was clear in the huddle to keep playing the same way and with the same level of commitment. The wise old heads of Chris Cadge and Richard Scott were introduced to add a little bit of nous to the pack. York started the half the better with more control than Leo's who were looking dangerous in the harem scarem attacks with Bindloss rolling back the years to return York kicks with vigor and terrible chat at the same time. They were denied a certain try by an intercept from Lofty who looked up to see 80m of ploughed field in front of him and sensibly he offloaded to Porter only to be returned the ball 5 m later.
The dominance of territory York were enjoying eventually led to a try as strong goal line defence by Leo's resulted in a turn over by Ben Robson that squirted out of the back of the ruck and through a pair of legs for the York 13 to dive on top and slide over. York continued to enjoy a territorial dominance and the benefit of some favorable decisions worked an overlap while Neil Shaw was spending 10 minutes in the sin to score again in the corner.
With 10 minutes left Leo's were faced with a 12 point deficit. York knocked on the kick off which gave Leo's a foothold in the York half and keeping the ball in the York 22 eventually after carries from Cadgey and Marsh eventually Leddy found the gap at the side of the ruck to crash over from his favored inside shoulder line. Tweddle kicked the conversion to make it a 5 point game with 5 to go.
The restart failed to go the 10 and from the resulting scrum Porter went in and out on his man to find Bindloss who timed the pass to perfection to set Crawforth free on the outside and despite giving away at least 20 years to some of his chasers he showed no little pace and poise to finish near the 15 metre line to tie up the scores. With finding ground to take the conversion from that wasn't a puddle a draw looked the bookies favored bet but Tweddle nailed the conversion and Leo's had 2 minutes to hold onto their 2 point lead. It was a lead that they were not going to relinquish and gave Leddy his first win in a Leo's shirt since joining the club in September.
A fine win having been 12 points down with 10 to go, but a game that was played in the right spirit throughout and given the conditions a skillful encounter as well.