A Welcome win

At Last The Welcome Balm and Boon of a Long Awaited Win For the Leos 3s !

Leos 3s gathered at Bedquilts to take on Old Mods on a sunny, mild day.
After Englands remarkable comeback several of the Leos team were nursing thoroughly deserved hangovers!
Even Cadgey admitted later to a mild drunken sensation, possibly a little similar to Legolas in Lord of the Rings, when he was competing with Gimli in a drinking game
“ I can feel a slight tingling, I think the beer is starting to affect me ! “

Blimey if even our mighty leader was hungover we must have hit the ale fairly hard last night !!!

Old Mods had 11 good lads willing to play on a 6 N weekend, highly commendable. So Leos gave Mods 3 boys and a fast tempo 14 aside game in the sunshine got cracking.

Up front Leos dominated the scrums with Soft Dave, Cadgey and Farmer Jim doing damage in the front row. Neil, Stevo and the rest of the forwards thankfully responded to the pre match request for intensity from Captain Cadgey with great gusto !
However it was in the backs that Leos really held the whip hand. Tim Martin at 10 and your humble scribe at 12, simply tried to put the returning Jake at 13 in space as often as possible. After a few drives by the forwards and a bosh or 2, Jake either outpaced or outpowered the Mods defence on repeated occasions. This led to the said 13 scoring 3 tries in the first half, 2 of which were converted.

Mods responded with good hard yard forward play, never giving up, but crucially with little meaningful penetration. This was partly as Leos had thankfully decided to tackle today ! Leading the defence was Chris at 9, who smashed anything that moved. For one of not huge stature Chris hits very hard, always low, and with great timing too. If Lewis Moody had ever played 9 he would have looked very much like Chris did today.

Chris plays with a total and complete disregard for his own safety in serving the needs of his team. An example to us all.
Neil was not far behind in the tackle count as he also put in a great defensive shift.
The classy Mods 9 struck 3 penalties to stay in touch and we turned around 19- 9 to the good. Leos had not listened to the ref well in the first half and were constantly pinged for silly penalties. This poor discipline kept Mods in touch in a game where every time Leos managed to work the ball into Jakes hands he looked like scoring, sometimes from 60 yards out. The boy is class, he runs with the ball in 2 hands in a low slung style that is hard to counter. Pace, power and an unassuming nature doubtless marks the young centre as one for higher honours in Leos colours in the near future.

In the 2nd half Cadgey played for Mods. Billy Marsh, having done a shift for them, returned to Leos colours to good effect.
“ Tricky “ a friend of Soft Dave, also played very well for Mods and we are grateful for him getting stuck in at short notice. Rich ran with aggression, power and purpose, and we hope that his sat night work duties will allow him to play for Leos when he can in the future.
The 2nd half was different. With the nous and bulk of Cadgey in the Mods front row they won most scrums, as he helped develop young rugby players with subtle yet expert coaching tips.

Despite the extra Mods ball Leos defended well with tackles raining down on any Mods boys who looked like scoring.
Tim Martin controlled the game well, getting good service from Chris at 9. Jake ran in 2 more tries and said 10 also crossed the whitewash after slick offloading put Tim into space. Sparking a lot of this front foot play was Stevo running from deep and evading defenders with strength and quick feet. He made countless yards running at the heart of the Mods defence.

Cadgey ran with glee at his normal team mates playing for Mods, only being stopped by committed tackling, and the occasional slightly unorthodox grabbing one of his arms and hanging on until even the 22 ish stone behemoth had to go to ground !!
Jo ran well from deep for Leos showing good foot speed, an awareness of space and the supporting players around him. Farmer Jim made a couple of useful breaks and played with all his normal enthusiasm, leading the team well in the 2nd half.
Even your humble scribe was made to look a far better player than he has ever been, with a matador moment deep in the 2nd half. An on rushing chaser failed to slow down and even the old centre was able to step him and clear his lines, inevitably just failing to find touch.
Ah hubris ! Always good to be keep ones feet on the ground. The Rugby Gods will always ensure we at Leos do not get ahead of ourselves.

The game ended in handshakes and banter as we returned to Leos to hear the good news that our 1s had managed to pip Goole 16- 15 at the Crag.

The 3s game was played in very good spirits, and we are grateful to Mods for fronting up with only 11 players to make a team from.
So a good win with Jake the undoubted Man of the Match. However it was noted by Captain Chaos after the game that this win was founded on a much more committed effort from Leos, notably in making their first up tackles and playing for each other and the shirt. There is a simple lesson here boys, effort often leads to getting what we deserve, that cuts both ways, today the effort was highly commendable from everyone.How about we try and keep the enjoyable taste of winning beer in the coming weeks!

Todays dressing room cleaners at Leos were Stuart Moran, and again Tim Heaton, and we thank them for their sterling efforts.