03/12/11 West Leeds 11 - 27 Doncaster Phoenix

As always seems to be the case when Phoenix travel to Blue Hill Lane they were greeted with a full years weather in just a couple of hours with bright sunshine, strong winds, rain and hail stone not making conditions conducive to expansive rugby!

Phoenix started with the strong wind at their backs and immediately used the conditions to their advantage, pinning West Leeds in their half for the first 15 minutes of the game. However good defence limited Phoenix to a solitary penalty for fly-half Jono Storey. West Leeds began to come back into the match and when Phoenix gave away a penalty in front of the posts their fly-half duly obliged to level the scores.

Doncaster hit back immediately as from the restart they took full advantage of a dropped ball by West Leeds as lock Greg Neill fed his second row partner Sam Canning-Birtles who stormed over for his first touch-down in Phoenix colours. Storey added the extras and Phoenix were back in front at 10-3.

Just as the half seemed to be petering out a kick from the West Leeds full back was spilled by Phoenix and the West Leeds winger picked up and raced over in the corner for an unconverted try to make the halftime score 10-8.

As expected, West Leeds flew out of the blocks in the second half and it was now their turn to use the strong wind to keep Phoenix pinned in the corners. Continued pressure saw Phoenix concede a penalty on the halfway line, which the West Leeds fly half Dale Breakwell kicked with something to spare.

This score spurred Phoenix back into life and a series of forward drives saw Phoenix held up over the West Leeds line. However, from the resulting 5m scrum Phoenix forced their way over the line only for a West Leeds flanker to prevent a certain try, leaving the referee no option other than to award the penalty try to take the score to 18-11.

Phoenix were now in charge of the forward battle and more pressure eventually saw another scrum in the West Leeds 22. A backs move off the first phase saw centre Adam Burton make a break in midfield before feeding Carey Thomas who unselfishly tipped the ball on to winger Joe Matthews for the third Phoenix try.

With Phoenix now two scores clear West Leeds began to throw caution to the wind, however a turnover in the Phoenix 22 saw scrum-half Tim Elliott kick the ball clear. The West Leeds winger was unable to take the catch and centre Dan Greenslade hacked the ball on before winning the race against the full-back for the final try of the game which also earned Phoenix the bonus point and left the final score at 27-11.

Next week sees Phoenix entertain Skipton at home as they look to continue their recent run of good form.

Match report: Dan Greenslade