Leos bested on the road

With a whopping 22 students turning out across three teams, Leos student recruitment campaign again starts to pay dividends and gives the club a chance to field 3 full teams.

Making the arduous journey across to West Park Leeds, the 3s set off for a merit league clash with the added spice of a local derby. Although the pack was fairly tried and tested, plenty of new combinations were on display out in the backs with at least 3 Leos debutants on the day.

With no referee, WPLs Myles Rutherford took charge of the whistle for the first 10 minutes, a period which Leos were very quick to assert some dominance over. A few strong scrums and hard carries provided a healthy platform before hands in the ruck gifted Leos a penalty and a kick for touch.

The resulting lineout saw the pack trudge up the park and straight under the WPL posts with Jordan Cummings claiming the try and providing plenty of go forward. Try converted.

Shortly after, a referee became available and subbed himself on. WPL started to play a much more expansive game, offloading at will and taking a more non-committal approach to rucks. With the ball switching possession every few phases it looked like an arm wrestle was on the cards, until WPL managed to stretch the Leos defence to skirt under for their first try.

The rest of the half became much more of the same, Leos made yards through Jordan, Chris Cadge and the boot of Tom Bindloss but were just unable to cover the pitch enough to stop the quick reactions of the more drilled opposition. New lads Tom Wilson and Paddy Evans tackled and carried well but the boys in blue just couldn't make it stick.

Breaking all 3rd team convention, WPL opted to kick for the sticks, much to the distaste of the purists on both sides. Fortunately, for the sanctity of rugby the effort fell short and was regrouped by Edd Austin who decided to go on a canter only to be hauled down just over the 22.

The second half saw a more confident looking Leos come out to play. Gaining early advantage in the scrum and lineout provided a deja vu moment early in the half with a strong forward drive spearheaded by Nigel Gummerson saw the opposition forwards splinter leaving space for Billy Marsh to wriggle through before side-stepping the full back and diving for the line. Unconverted.

Almost buoyed on by conceding, the home team opened up the lead with a handful of quick tries in succession. Taking the game well and truly out of Leos hands. Defence did leave a lot to be desired at times but on the whole Leos managed to stick it out.

Keen to reclaim the mantle of club top try scorer, Tom Bindloss seized an opportunity from a tap penalty to weave in and out of the disorganised defence of WPL for a well deserved consolation score. Unconverted.

The hosts continued to turn the screw, running in a couple more unanswered tries. Plenty of lessons to be learned for the men from Crag Lane where the future is certainly bright.

Some strong individual performances just weren't enough to hold it all together, onto the next challenge it is!

Man of the match goes to Jordan Cummings for big carries, strong defence and an early try.