Wath at Home Match Report

Four tries saw Leos 3s stride onwards with victory over a battling, physical Wath-upon-Dearne side. As with the previous week’s victory over Burley 2nd XV, this was a hastily-arranged friendly after Leos’ original opponents, Pontefract 3rd XV, were unable to fulfil the league fixture. This exposure to a hard-bitten, experienced side will certainly do Leos’ young tyros the world of good.

Wath arrived with 13 players of their own, thus various rotating Leos filled in on their team as the match progressed. Thank you to all who did so - it was essential for the game to be competitive. Unfortunately for Leos, the 13 who turned up were all built like American fridges, with their captain and number 8 being an absolute unit. It did not take Eddie Jones to deduce that Wath would play a forwards-based game, and so it proved as Leos kicked off on an unseasonably warm and sunny autumn day.

The early stages belonged to Leos as the structure of their play, which has been improving week upon week, really came to the fore. With scrum half Fergus Johnston running the show, Leos’ pack began to make some decent inroads into their larger opponents. The real danger was out wide however where Leos definitely had the upper hand. Brendan Fosh and Will “Will-O” Ofosuhene made a fine centre pairing, the combination of Fosh’s bosh and Will-O’ elusiveness (nothing rhymes with Will-O here) creating serious problems for the Wath defence. After a few early drives were swiftly sacked by the Wath captain, Leos hit on the idea of exploiting Gregor Belfield’s line-out dominance and moving the ball off the top to the backs. This gained some serious yards, with the aforementioned centres prospering and also Theo Wilson causing difficulties for Wath out wide. Leos camped in the Wath 22 and the first try was not long in coming. After a series of hit ups, Kenny Parsons and skipper Billy Marsh spotted a huge hole on the Wath flanks and piled through, with ball carrier Parsons finally being brought down by a desperate tackle 5 metres out. The Wath defence had been fatally fractured through and once Marsh efficiently cleaned the ruck, Fergus Johnson put Will-O in for a simple score. Johnston also banged over the conversion to give Leos a 7-0 lead.

There followed a period when the Wath line seemed to live a charmed life. Leos dominated territory and possession but a combination of tigerish Wath defence, Leos errors and sheer luck denied the home side further points. Winger Spandon Dass was a prime example, evading several tacklers and stepping to the line for what would have been a glorious score, only to agonisingly lose possession in the act of grounding. About ten minutes before half time however the Wath resistance was finally broken thanks to a moment of inspiration from Fergus Johnston. After Leos had battled their way to within metres of the Wath Line, the young scrum half looked up and brilliantly flashed a long, flat pass across three Leos players to the waiting hands of Kenny Parsons, who was as surprised as anyone to be scoring in the corner almost unopposed. Johnson was unable to convert, but 12-0 was a solid lead at this point considering that Wath had struggled to emerge from their own half.

At this point the remaining period until half time is a bit of a blur, as your writer was brutally cleaned out whilst jackalling at a ruck and had to go off for a while to recover. (Still won the penalty though.) Apologies if you did something notable during that period! Half time score: Leos 12-0 Wath.

Despite having offered little threat in the first half, Wath came out for the second period with a bang and took the game to Leos, hammering away up front with their big forwards. Despite this Leos offered stout resistance, led by Man of The Match Tom Smeatham who repeatedly brought down the rampaging Wath pack with outstanding tackling. Steve “The Ferret” Lloyd and Will Humphries also found themselves in the thick of the action, repeatedly tackling and competing at the ruck where, despite their weight disadvantage, Leos were able to steal possession with remarkable regularity. At 12-0 down Wath were still very much in the game, but a superb individual score from Leos fullback Shaun Tatlow effectively put paid to those ambitions. After a clearance kick failed to find touch and instead landed in Tatlow’s arms, the Aussie carved through several Wath tackles and slid over to the right of the posts. Johnston converted to give Leos a 19-0 lead.

This score seemed to knock the stuffing out of Wath for a bit, with Leos steadily regaining their ascendancy. The heavy Wath forwards began to tire as Leos relentlessly moved the ball around, with the axis of fly half Ben Pearce and Brendan Fosh creating space almost at will. Exploiting this space were Cam Parker, who managed several long runs down the left flank and fellow Australian Theo Wilson. It was down this flank that the final try came, when Tom Smeatham found himself in space with Simon Winterburn outside him. Instead of putting Winterburn over in the corner however, Smeatham deftly rounded the Wath full back and crossed near the posts. Johnston again converted for a 26-0 lead, which would be the final score.

The game was far from over however and Wath controlled the remaining minutes as they sought a consolation score. Although the match was won, Leos were determined to keep their line intact and fiercely resisted Wath’s punishing drives into the Leos 22, with Smeatham again to the fore. Several times Wath were held up over the line, with their 8 picking off the back of the scrum and bulldozing forward. However, they could not break through and when a Wath player lost the ball it was quickly hoofed away for full time.

For Leos this was another week of improvement and a fine result, especially shutting out Wath for the entire game. The structure and attacking philosophy is really starting to come together and when matched with solid defence, Leos will be a handful for any Merit League team. As previously stated, Man of the Match was hooker Tom Smeatham for a superb all round performance, especially in defence. Other strong showings came from Fergus Johnston, Will-O and Brendon Fosh, with Si Winterburn also making a real impact when he came on in the pack. Next week will hopefully see a return to league action, with Aireborough 2nd XV scheduled to be the opposition!