14-man Leeds 2nd XV produced a display full of resilience and grit to overcome Leeds Met 32-23 in a high-octane Varsity match. With all the odds stacked against them following the dubious 20th minute dismissal of Ned Browne, the Gryphons bounced back and salvaged victory with a performance that must give them plenty of heart for the season to come.
With conditions set out for a free-flowing match of rugby, Leeds were the first to gain the upper hand after Simon Haddad was provided with the easiest of finishes in the left hand corner thanks to full-back Toby Quinn Jaques break, with Jack Gaff converting to put Leeds 7-0 ahead. After Leeds Met had pegged the game back with a penalty to make it 7-3, disaster struck for Leeds in a bizarre sequence of events. After receiving a yellow for his second high tackle of the game, Ned Browne immediately found himself with a red card after what appeared to be innocent questioning the referee’s decision; a verdict which seemed to baffle players and spectators alike and which ran the risk of ruining a match that had started promisingly.
However, rather than succumbing to the superior numbers of Met, it was Leeds who pushed on and soon found themselves 12-3 up after a fantastic chip over the Met defence by Gaff to James Rowbotham, who had the simplest of tasks of collapsing on the ball to finish the try. Despite conceding a late try in the half, Leeds still managed to go into the break 15-8 up after a late penalty by Gaff.
Leeds appeared to be half-asleep after the re-start, however, as they conceded two quick tries to leave them facing an uphill task to claim victory, and they soon found themselves 23-18 down after an exchange ofpenalties. The game seemed to be sliding out of the Gryphons sight until Met received a yellow card for punching in the maul, from which Leeds never looked back. From the resultant penalty from the sin-binning, Leeds set up a maul and barrelled their way over the line with Greg Sturge emerging as the try-scorer. The game was soon out of sight with a poor box-kick by Met charged down by Quinn Jaques, who dealt with the bouncing ball to touch down for Leeds fourth and final try.
Author: Ben Blosse