Vintage Leos finally put Ossett away

With Leos' 1s enjoying a fallow weekend of league action the majority of the club went on sabbatical but with those who remained keen to taste action a home game was arranged against Ossett following Leeds Corinthians late decision to pull out of the scheduled merit game. Thankfully Jimmy didn't bring too much snow from one of his many skiing trips and had the pitch looking in fine condition given the time of year.

Leos started strongly with the wind at their backs and looked to capitilise on any turn over ball to get outside the larger Ossett pack. With Alex Passingham proving a nuisance on the floor once again able supported by the back row of Billy, Si and Guy the home side were able to disrupt Ossett ball regularly and with the Ref keen on an open game plenty of skulduggery ensued. With Leos dominating territory the first try of the game came after a penalty had been kicked to the corner and with position scored Tom Tweddle put Connor Spencer into half a gap who turned it into a full blown chasm to storm his way to the try line. The 2nd try shortly followed from turn over ball on Ossetts 22 the ball was shifted outside the narrow defence to Tim Martin (or Martain if your Gabz) who rounded the full back to score.

As is usual for Leos the thought this could be an easy win crept into their minds and allowed for regular defensive lapses to come into Leos play giving Ossett a foot hold in the game who's pack were trying to build superioty around the scrum and maul given their size advantage but Leos scramble defence held firm and kept the visitors at bay. The half finished much how it had started with Leos turning the ball over and moving it wide to allow Oli Hill to make the break before offloading to Tim martin to score his 2nd of the game leaving the score Leos 21-0 at half time.

With changes made to give the full squad ample game time Leos faced up to a 2nd half attacking into the building wind but an early score would kill the game as a contest and it came from an individual effort from Connor Spencer. After several forward trundles the ball was shifted out to the backs where Connor straightened straight through his opposite number before displaying a turn of speed to go 80 metres under the posts. Thankfully Connor has a considerably better engine than his acquaintance Tower who he was keen to point out he has never lived with our taken dietary tips from.

With the wind allowing Ossett to gain territory much of the 2nd half was played in Leos 22 trapped in the boggy corner where Bindloss tried to counter only to sink into the quicksand below his feet - was it the pitch, was it the ageing leg? Straw poll to follow.

But having repelled several 5 metre scrums and drives Leos finally escaped coffin corner to score two of the tries of the season to wrap up proceedings. Having gone through several phases the ball was shifted through the hands before arriving with Rob Simpson with 2 men in front of him he produced a side stepped both bringing back memories of Neil Liu before repeating the trick on the final defender leaving him grasping for thin air to go on and score. A fantastic individual finish to go put the icing on the cake to a great team build up. From the resulting kick off Leos attacked again free from the shackles of their own 22 and picked and drove attacking in and around the rucks (if only Eddie Jones had been watching) before finally the ball was floated around the back of the last defender by Tom Tweddle to Rob Simpson to score his 2nd try of the game despite the complaints of the opposition around the legality of the final pass.

A final score of 40-0 wrapped up an unbeaten month for Leos 2s before we all retired to the bar to the pleasure of hearing Jimmy Gribbon crow about the renaissance of Scottish Rugby...all most people heard was blah, blah, blah!