Last week Sedgley Park played against Exeter and were on the hands of a 71 – 5 thumping, at 4.30pm on Saturday anything other than a big score would seem like a disappointment.

Leeds, as expected, made numerous changes from the team that beat London Welsh but as shown by the depth of our squad the team put out had a good balance of youth and experience.

Waking up on Saturday the weather forecast was for a miserable day with showers throughout and this came to pass. The pitch was left greasy and was to have a major effect on how the game would progress. I made the short journey to Whitefield and arrived to see the kicking practice taking place, both Brookes and Paul were kicking but were not having a huge amount of success….hopefully that would change in the match. Attendance wise there was a good turnout of Leeds fans making the trip all hoping for, no disrespect to Sedgley Park, but an easy win.

From the kick off Leeds went on the attack with Rawly on the charge but unfortunately there was a knock on and he was pulled back for a scrum. Straight away we were pinged in the scrum and Sedgley cleared their lines. A passage of good possession from Leeds led to an opportunity under the post but unfortunately a knock on meant that nothing came from it. On the next attack a lovely kick from Brookes on the Sedgley 22 put Hepworth through, all the needed to do was ground it…unfortunately he knocked it on in the dead ball area….an opportunity squandered.

After 8 minutes the deadlock was broken, good hands by Armstrong, Clark and Mathie let Hinton scorch in at the corner for the opening try, he was however unable to convert it. Unfortunately Leeds did not kick on after this try and a lot of scrappy play ensued with poor kicking and handling being the mainstay for the next part of the game. The next coherent attack was started by a great run by Welding who passed to Myall who flicked it to Hints but unfortunately the ball went to ground for a Sedgley scrum.

Leeds’ pack looked dominant and after a good drive Mathie made a break, the ball was stabbed through Barrow and Hepworth chased through but Sedgley recovered it from an offside position. the ref awarded a penalty try which Hints converted making it 12 – 0.

Good scoring opportunities were squandered with numerous simple mistakes meant that we were still only 12-0 up. The next try came from another good scrum, good possession was lost when Calum knocked on, however Sedgley countered but the forwards turned the ball over and quick hands and a great offload by MacDonald let Hinton cross the line for his second leaving the score at 17-0.

30 minutes in good build up play led to another try which secured the bonus point. James Brookes ran a great line through the Sedgley defence and one on one with the final defender he popped the ball to Armstrong who went under the posts, Hinton converted.

Half Time – Sedgley Park 0 – Leeds Carnegie 24

Half time came and general thoughts were that this was an average performance by Leeds but at least the bonus point was secured. No substitutions were made at half time and Leeds started the second half on the attack, with 3 minutes gone Pendlebury stormed over the line after charging down a kick by Sedgley Park he offloaded to Lund who passed back to Pendlebury who crossed, Hinton converted making it 31 – 0. A few minutes later a great break by Hinton allowed Leeds possession in the Sedgley Park 22, Danny Paul took a pass from Brookes to crash over to take the score to 38 – 0 after Hinton’s conversion.

This is when the substitutions came on with Joe Bedford, Henry Paul and John Dunbar entering the fray in place of Mathie, Barrow and Danny Paul, 5 minutes later Oakley and Bucknall came on for Pendlebury and MacDonald. The game lost its flow and bouts of aerial ping-pong became common place, on the 63rd minute Leeds got their next try, Calum managed to secure possession in the ruck, the newly christened “Pudding” aka Rhys Oakley stormed through a game and popped the ball to Kearnan who made use of his speed, passed the fullback with ease and scored his first of the season, Hinton converted taking the score to 45-0 with 63 minutes gone.

Leeds score their 8th and final try of the afternoon on the 66th minute with James Brookes crossing the line. The build-up showed why it is so important to chase kicks, a good kick by Brookes was followed by the pacey Goodridge, his pressure on the fullback meant kicking to touch was the only option. Using his nous Goodridge grabbed the ball and took a quick lineout to Brookes who went overline untouched to take the score to 52 – 0.

Thoughts were turning to our proud defensive record where we have not conceded any tries in 4 hours of rugby, unfortunately this was to change. The referee seemed like he was on a mission to make sure Sedgley Park weren’t nilled and after blowing the whistle time and time again winger Swatkins crossed to make the score 52 – 7 after the conversion. Credit has to go to Sedgley Park who ran hard throughout the game and turned down opportunities to take easy kicks deciding to run the ball instead.

Final Score – Sedgley Park 7 – 52 Leeds Carnegie

After the match my first thoughts were that although we didn’t play brilliantly we scored 52 points and secured a bonus point win. It was a shame to concede at the end of the game but we are sitting top of the league with 7 wins from 7 games with 6 try bonus points, it could be a lot worse!

Sedgley Park: 7
T = Peter Swatkins (79)
C = Phil Jones (80)

Leeds Carnegie: 52
T – Leigh Hinton (8, 23), Penalty (11), Scott Armstrong (32), John Pendlebury (43), Danny Paul (46), Kearnan Myall (63), James Brooks (66)
C – Leigh Hinton (12, 33, 44, 47, 64, 67)

Teams:
Sedgley Park – Riley, Swatkins, Hall, Tafa, Wilcock, Jones, Leck, Gozzazola, Roddam, Du Plessis, Fourie, Townson, Jones, Newton, Cook (Replacements – Evans, Roberts, Livesey, Woods, Crous, Wilkinson, Weeden)
Leeds Carnegie – Hinton, Welding, Hepworth, Barrow, Armstrong, Brooks, Mathie, Macdonald, Rawlison, McGee, Lund, Pendlebury, Myall, Clark, Paul (Replacements – Bucknall, Nilson, Dunbar, Oakley, Bedford, Paul, Goodridge)

 Picture courtesy of Bran - more pictures are available - check the Gallery page

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