Phoenix travelled to Leeds with a changes a plenty knowing that defeat here last season put a serious dent in their promotion ambitions and will have to hope that this defeat doesn’t prove the same this season.
The changes included Douglas coming in for the honey mooning Germaine, Ellis returned at full back and Brookfield on the wing.
Phoenix kicked off with the slope and wind in their favour and started strongly enough with the pack functioning well at the set and improving on last weeks loose play and when Ellis got the ball his large frame dented the home defence.
Corinthians always prove tenacious on their home ground and today was no exception, their defence held well and hassled well in the loose to deny Phoenix any serious momentum. Problems were compounded for Phoenix when Ellis then pulled up and had to be replaced by Watts ten minutes in.
Corinthians drew first blood after Phoenix conceded a penalty for handling in the ruck.
Despite the loss the Phoenix pack made yards and were denied by the last knock on, silly penalty, turnover in the wet conditions or wrong decision when the advantage was on offer. It was then the home side that from a turnover twenty out that they broke blind and their speedy winger shot up the left flank to go under for a converted try.
Not to be outdone the Phoenix pack gained field position on the twenty-two. From the ensuing line out they caught and drove on gaining a further ten metres the ball was then spun to the centre where inside centre Lowcock barged through two defenders and stretched out to reduce the deficit to three points after Stewart converted leaving the half time score 10-7 in the home sides favour.
With the Phoenix pack functioning well they maintained their momentum in the second half and looked to do the hard yards. Again a resilient defence and wrong decision-making thwarted them. With intelligent kicking from the home side fly half he recovered ground position and threatened with deft kicks putting the Phoenix defence under pressure finding it difficult to cope with the high ball. On one such occasion he came close to putting the right-winger in at the corner only to miss the mark in the dead ball area. They did maintain position and pick up another three points from a penalty.
Things then got worse for the visitors when again they advanced into Corinthian territory for the ball to be quickly turned over spun left with an emerging overlap the centre popped over to seal a home side win under the post with ten minutes to go.
The last ten minutes saw Phoenix probably play their best rugby of the game and they pressured the home twenty-two. They camped five yards out and eventually scored as result from Kaihau barging over from short range and Stewart with the conversion made the score 20-14.
This proved to be the final score as the clock beat the visitors with Corinthians not daft enough to allow them back with two minutes left - once again Phoenix suffered the hoodoo of Corinthians for another season! |
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