Leeds Tykes 30 Doncaster Knights 18
Knights throw it away
The Knights made one change to the team that beat Coventry, bringing Luke Gross back to replace the injured Glen Kenworthy. The vocal travelling support had come in confident mood and contributed to the atmosphere generated by the 2000 crowd in the stadium but as early as the seventh minute there were signs that it would be a demanding afternoon when from line out ball, Tykes centre Jonny Hepworth had a worryingly easy path to the try line through the Knight’s midfield defence. Leigh Hinton added the extras and the home side were visibly lifted by early success. They should have scored again two minutes later when with a four on two, but an errant pass lost a clear opportunity and the Knights breathed again. After an attack up the right, and a tackle penalty, Mark Woodrow got the visitors on the scoreboard after ten minutes and this seemed to spark a ten minute period of attacking play from both sides in which two trends within the game were becoming clear – the Tykes’ handling errors were costing them in broken play; and the Knights’ line out was being successfully raided and never more critically than after Woodrow’s chip deep into the ’22 set up an attacking position close to goal for the expected power maul, but the ball was lost and the chance gone.
At the end of the first quarter, though, the Knights went ahead. A coherent series of phases, and excellent advantage from referee Newitt, saw Brad Hunt break the defence at pace. He drew Hinton before releasing Wes Davies with the perfect pass for the full back to make the left hand corner for a well worked try. This looked more like the cutting edge that was missing the previous week and it galvanised the Knights into a period of action mostly in the Tykes half. Hunt and Donovan Van Vuuren combined to set up another opportunity after Tykes’ desperate defence had conceded another penalty. Instead of points, Woodrow elected to go to the corner and although the line out was secure, the maul was pulled up for accidental offside this time and the chance went begging. The period of sustained pressure did find reward on the half hour, though, and again Hunt was the catalyst. His brilliant pick up, half break and pass put Spencer Davey in for the try which Woodrow converted to open an eight point gap. Sadly, carelessness at the restart presented the ball immediately back to Tykes in broken play and as they got into the Knights’ ’22, offside advantages were on offer three phases in a row, and although offending prevented what looked like an inevitable try, Hinton did take the penalty offered to reduce the gap at half time to 10-15. It had been a fluent half and good spectator value, with only six penalties awarded; but the telling statistic was that 17 of the 21 scrums had been put in by the Knights, testament to the very high Tykes’ error count that had allowed the Knights to enjoy more of the half’s possession.
The second half had a controversial start. On the attack on the Tykes’ ’22, Woodrow was subjected to a dangerous spear tackle by John Dunbar, who was amazingly only yellow carded. The little fly half had been lifted high and dumped head first with force and fortunately was not injured. Referee Newittt called it “dangerous” and as such should have used the red sanction. Woodrow gathered himself and took three points from in front of the posts, and the eight point gap was again there, surely the platform from which the Knights would go on and secure a famous victory. This thought, shared by both sets of supporters, was very quickly shelved, however, when arguably the key moment in the game occurred on 47 minutes. Leeds had overkicked a long ball, which ran dead, and presented the Knights with an attacking scrum in the Tykes half. With the left side loaded, quick ball in that direction saw an overlap with space but Paul Bailey’s “scoring” pass to Van Vuuren was laboured, Richard Welding intercepted it, and ran 80 metres unopposed for the simplest of tries that Hinton converted. All while Tykes still had a man in the sin bin. From that point on, the Knights lost the plot. Line out ball became insecure: the defence creaked and only Hinton’s penalty falling inches short, and Ben Jones scragging of Jacob Raulini under the posts, kept the one point lead intact; but when Simon Bunting was caught by the TJ for illegal use of boot and he spent ten minutes in the sin bin, the one man advantage and scrum disruption gave Tykes heart and on 67 minutes they took a lead they would not relinquish. After breaking up the left, they found another gaping hole between the Knights’ centres and although Bailey caught his man, an inside offload saw Hinton in support to score wide out. Another poor restart, this time not ten, gave ball back to Tykes; another line out loss did the same. It was increasingly difficult for the Knights to put any phases together and catch up rugby was in evidence. Never more so than when deep in their own ’22, a long cross field pass to the unattended Van Vuuren went forward, and once again Tykes were able to attack. At last a line out turnover went the Knights’ way, and they worked their way back into the Tykes’ ’22, but when the situation looked promising (and still only 4 points in arrears) Jon Benson (on as Woodrow’s replacement) took too long and was unceremoniously sacked and what was the last chance went begging.
Back at the other end with 2 minutes left, a tackle penalty surprisingly saw Hinton elect to take 3 points for a seven point lead, rather than go for a bonus point try. It suggested they felt insecure and wanted to rule out any prospect of a late defeat. It didn’t matter, though, as in stoppage time the Knights threw away (literally) the losing bonus point – and gifted Leeds their four try version – when with all the time in the world to clear from a defensive scrum, Benson fumbled the ball which was fly hacked through and Ian Humphreys won the race for the touch down to the disbelieving delight of the home crowd.
Clive Griffiths was apoplectic after the final whistle at the manner in which an increasingly probable win was literally thrown away, and those responsible are likely to find themselves in an “attitude adjustment” session early this week! “I can’t be expected to have to teach experienced professional players basic handling and passing skills”, he said as he faced a week of taking stock of the situation before another Yorkshire derby next weekend when Otley come to Castle Park (2.30pm).
Leeds: Hinton, Welding, Hepworth (Whittaker 52), T Rock (A Rock 50), Holtby, Humphries, Raulini, Macdonald (Paul 53), Nilsen, Cusack (McGee 53), Bouza, Myall, Dunbar, Lock, Oakley.
Doncaster: Davies, Bailey, Hunt, Davey, Van Vuuren, Woodrow (Benson 69), Jones, Bunting, Boden (Phillips 69), Tau, Gross, Cook, Earnshaw, Forster, Wilson (Talei 59).
Referee: D. Newitt (RFU) |
