Tough day in the heat at Cleck

After some early league wins for the 3rd team and a few pre-season tales to be told, this weekend the 2nd XV began their season in full with their first league game, away at Cleckheaton. The day held much promise: a full Rugby World Cup schedule in the morning, a Leos game in the afternoon. Lining up alongside the usual Leos long-term stalwarts were a growing number of students, most returning from long, perhaps over-indulgent breaks over the summer or even a whole year away from the game. The day started with some questionable arrival times at Leos, blamed variously on taxis, traffic and Tower but suspiciously correlating with the end of the NZ v SA World Cup clash. Cleckheaton was the destination: no one really knew where it was or who they were but off we drove. Cruising along the M621 with the cricket on the radio, it was suggested that today might be a better day for playing cricket – 24° and glorious sunshine. We hoped instead for a cricket score, which to be fair, we got. ‘Anyone got suncream?’ asked Rowan. An hour later, defending against the sun was the least of our worries.

After a sweaty warm up in the heat, we received the kick off, playing up hill. The ball dropped in a gap, which became a feature of the afternoon – something to work on in training. However, after a solid start in defence, the Leos machine kicked into gear. Tweds took advantage of Cleckheaton indiscipline with some good touchfinders and the forwards and centres combined with great carries up the hill. It may have been a day for running rugby, but we knew our strength – round the fringes, working together, beating tacklers in small spaces. The forwards came round the corner and pushed on. When we did send it wider, good hands from Bindloss put Joe McCartney into space down the left and he finished well, beating the defender into the corner. Tough conversion uphill missed. 5-0 Leos. Disappointingly, a missed kick receive put us back deep into our own half, and Cleck quickly showed their intent with wide, running rugby and good hands in the backs. Over they went in the corner and it was 5-5.

Luckily, Cleck weren’t much better at catching kick offs. Pinned deep in their own half, a clearing kick failed to make touch, finding Paddy Behan instead. Mistake. Speeding and stepping his way past half their team, he offloaded superbly but the supporting player was hauled down just before he could get the final pass away. Buoyed by the break, the forwards snapped into action, proving their strength against an ill-disciplined Cleck pack. Tweds put it into the corner and after some patient, tight phase play Tom Rees powered over to put us back into the lead. 10-5. Sadly, the big team effort for the first two tries slightly took it out of us, and some poor tackling and disorganised defence let Cleck in for two quick return tries. 10-17.

We recomposed and the rest of the half was dominated by back and forth midfield play. A few lost line outs perhaps cost us some much needed territory, but the work rate returned to thwart a dangerous Cleck backline who had the confidence and skill to test the edges of our defence time and time again. Shortly before half time they finally managed to convert a breakthrough with some effective offloading and handling in the backs. 24-10 half time.

Draining the water supplies in the heat of the half-time huddle, we felt still in the game but aware of the danger of Cleck’s young and fast backs. We had the slope in the second half and knew if we could play the game on our terms, a comeback was more than possible. It was not to be. The second half saw Cleck’s superior fitness and organisation win out. We struggled with ball retention and territory as Cleck grew in confidence with some flowing rugby and French-style offloading. There were glimpses of what we were capable of. When the forwards held onto the ball they rarely went backwards and Joe and Paddy on the wings made breaks on the odd occasion they weren’t screaming for help in defence. Tackling and organisation fell away as we felt the impact of the heat, hits and hill. Cleck ran in a lot of unanswered points until, with the help of the ref clamping down on backchat, we found ourselves back on the Cleck line. Again, we did what we do best – powerful, tight rugby which put Alex Passingham over for a vintage forwards’ try. Final score 66-15.

So, an all together disappointing start to the season but with more players back this week and more time to iron out the creases, we can only hope for better against Yarnbury next week. The saving grace in the changing rooms: Tower’s cheese board, acquired at surprising expense from Waitrose with the question: ‘I need a cheeseboard. I don’t know much about cheese? What can you do me’. A delectable selection which will be hard to top this season.

Positives: Excellent close quarters play, scrum
Things to work on: Lineout, Kick Receive, Ball Retention, Patterns
Notable performances: Luke Wyman and Tom Rees with big carries, Joe McCartney scoring well and covering lots of ground in defence.