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| 10 February 2004, 9:37 am |
| Unbeaten Wanderers March On |
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WANDERERS 38
LEEDS TYKES A 35
Chandos Park, Leeds
Monday, February 9, 2004
After a slow start the Wanderers continued their run at the top of the table with another bonus point win at Leeds' Chandos Park last night.
Leeds were keen to over-turn their loss earlier in the season to the combined Northampton and Bedford side as they dominated early play to open the scoring in the fifth minute through wing Tom Rock. Despite some possession beginning to unfold from the Wanderers, it was the home team who added the points again with a converted try through full-back Tim Walsh.
With the score at 14 nil and only a 15 minutes played, the Wanderers took control to earn themselves some pride as the forwards began to dominate and full-back Ben Patston earning the team some vital metres with his down-field kicking. Leeds were then forced to play with 14 men as their captain and hooker, Steve Bowden, was sent to the sin-bin. The visitors took advantage of the extra man to score through hooker Matt Miles. Fy-half Ben Russell added the conversion with a little help from the posts. The Wanderers continued to run the play as the backs linked well to send centre Andy Vilk for the first of his two tries.
Former Welsh lock Steve Williams continued on his road to recovery with a great catch at the line-out to begin a forward drive. Scrum-half Johnny Howard steered the pack nearer to the line to allow Williams to score from five metres out. The Wanderers forwards continued their domination as they won the put-in by turning the Leeds scrum. From here, the 'men in black' were awarded a free kick as Leeds collapsed the scrum. With the visitors determined to make their forward domination count, they chose to scrummage again and make the Yorkshiremen pay for their mistakes.
The Wanderers added their fourth try and the all-important bonus through Vilk as he intercepted a Leeds pass to run 70 metres under the posts. Russell added the conversion to take the score to the Wanderers 28 Leeds 14 at the turn around.
The Wanderers began the second half in a more determined mood to the first, but soon found themselves a man down when No 8 and co-captain Brett McNamee was sin-binned for putting his hands into the ruck. The home side made the most of the extra player this time as they found a gap in the Wanderers' defence to send wing Dave Doherty over for a try. Scotland veteran fly-half Duncan Hodge added the conversion again to take the score to 21 - 28 to set up an exciting half an hour.
The visitors were quick to reply to avoid the score becoming too close after a good period of pressure. Good linking by the backs created the space for wing Paul Diggin to dive over for the fifth try by the Wanderers, but he failed to convert his own score. The dominance kept coming as the Northern Conference leaders continued to show their recent form. Vilk looked set to score his second hat-trick in consecutive weeks but the Leeds defence had other ideas after chasing him for 90 metres to deny him the score. The support was quick to arrive as the ball was recycled for Loughborough University's Sam Ulf to finish Vilk's efforts.
The Leeds second string were keen to show they had not given up and came back at the Wanderers with full force. The Wanderers' defenders failed in their attempts to tackle Walsh as he went over for his second try. Leeds continued to apply the pressure for several minutes, although the Wanderers were not giving up as some big tackles were put in by prop Jon Golding, Vilk and replacement hooker Chris Rowlands. The Yorkshiremen were determined to have the last period of possession as injury time began by scoring through flanker Matt Stockdale. This began a tense few minutes for the Wanderers' bench but fortunately they had done enough to secure their victory with Leeds taking a double bonus from the final 35 - 38 score line.
Teams:
Wanderers - Patston; Mansfield* (Ulf 22 mins), Binham, Vilk:(Russell 74mins), Diggin; Russell (Jones 51mins), Howard (cc); Sturgess (Ross* 51 mins), Miles (Rowlands 59mins), Golding, O'Donoghue (Ball* 63mins), Williams (Ball* 51-57mins), Soden, Snape, McNamee (cc).
Leeds - Walsh; Rock (Parsons 24-40mins), Davies, Clayton, Doherty; Hodge, Walker (Barry 55mins); Cussack, Bowden (c), Brown, Challinor, Marshall (Entson 49mins), Stockdale, Nilsen (McNally 24-34mins), Salter (Worrall 40mins).
* denotes Bedford players
Scorers:
Wanderers -Tries: Miles, Vilk (2), Williams, Diggin, Ulf; Cons: Russell (4).
Leeds - Tries: Rock, Walsh (2), Doherty, Stockdale; Con: Hodge (4), Walsh.
Yellow cards:
Bowden
McNamee
Attendance:
150
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