Leos win close encounter at the Crag

CJ assembled a strong team to take to the large pitch to face Wetherby, a side who had put some 50+ points past us earlier in the season. A mix of youth and experience made up the match day 19 and included a debut from young Kai at scrum half. Leos elected to force Wetherby to pay into the winter sun and received the kick off.

3 or 4 strong carries and quick ball from the forwards saw Kai break through an early weak tackle to scamper 40 yards and touch down under the posts within 5 minutes. Score well converted by Tim Leslie.

After such a strong start, Leos then repeated undid their own good work. Hard drives from the forwards and centres made good ground. Tim, Tim and Kai kicked well to get us great field position on the edge of the Wetherby 22. Leos forwards then conspired to lose all the heard earned territory by repeated ruck infringements. This saw them pinged once and end up on the halfway line and then again to end up on their own 5 metre line defending a Wetherby lineout. After some strong carries from the Wetherby forwards and some strong fringe defence from Leos, the excellent but 'talkative' Wetherby no 8 crashed over for a much deserved score. Wetherby failed to convert from the corner.

Leos regrouped vocally, but not physically as an almost identical try was conceeded. Again, a penalty from a ruck infringement cost 30 odd yards of field position and eventually led to a try in the corner. Again, Wetherby failed to convert.

Half time 10 - 7 to Wetherby.

Wetherby received the kick off and put a good number of phases of play together to work their way into the Leos half. Quick ball went wide and the Wetherby backs drew their men and succesfully used an overlap to release their powerful number 8 in some space and scoare a try. Leos then entered a really good phases of the game. Controlling the game in the tight, crashing around the fringes, recycling quickly and then releasing the strong back line to make yards. When the strong wind let lineouts to reach their man the Leos maul was making 15 - 20 yards at a time and tiring Wetherby legs. Tim Martins crashed over after a break, Kai sniped well off the back of a 20 maul, and Tim Leslie was accurate with the boot leaving the score 24-17 in the final few minutes.

Wetherby once again went on the offensive and Leos put everything into their tackles. James Shepherd made a superb covering tackle 2m from his own line in the corner to prevent a certain try. Both CJ and Rob Shaw both flew out of the line to cut out big runners on the resultant few rucks before an unknown offside defender gave Wetherby a last minute penalty. With 5 minutes to play and Wetherby being good lads to honour the social rugby agreement of never kicking penalties at goal, they tapped and went and a particularly big forward barrelled his way over to make it 24 - 22. The Wetherby fly half once again had his work cut out to get his kick from the corner and missed. 2 minutes left on the clock.

Tim kicked deep and Leos forwards chased and tackled hard as Wetherby tried to work back to some kind of field position to launch another attack. Leos forced a penalty. Ref called last play after the lineout. Neil Shaw took it from the front and it was kicked out to bring the end to a very competitive game of rugby and a very good win to Leos.

Link to Wetherby match report including a few photos and a nice video of the teams leaving the pitch - http://www.wetherbyrufc.com/s/match-centre-16368/1-838647