Tykes tough it out against tenacious Tynedale
A slow start from Leeds Tykes saw the league leaders twelve points down and a man in the bin before the 20-minute mark.
Tynedale started strongly and with much passion, using the emotion of one of their player’s sudden passing to good effect. Ben Bell opened the home side’s account when he touched down after coming off the back of a catch and drive from a lineout because of a penalty for Leeds being offside. Josh Leslie converted.
Pete Lucock received a yellow card for repeated infringements. A messy maul saw Lewis Frankland score his side’s second try.
The Tykes finally got their hands on the ball. Tynedale’s Joe Beaty was shown a yellow card for a shoulder barge on Junior Nu’u. The Tykes rallied after Jack Gilmartin came into the second row and Eddie Brown moved to Number 8.
Aarin Yorke put Leeds’ first points on the board from catch and drive. Kieran Davies’ conversion was successful. Davies played a big part in his side’s second try just before halftime when he made a break, passed to Charlie Venables who cut a lovely line through Tynedale’s defence to score. Davies added the extras.
The second half saw a reversal of fortunes for the Tykes as Tynedale racked up the penalties. Leeds spurned some opportunities to increase the score, before, from another lineout, Yorke trundled over from a driving maul. Venables added his second try after the ball went wide following several rucks on the Tynedale line. Davies added both extras.
Immediately from the restart, Tynedale kicked the ball back straight into the arms of Seremaia Bai Turagabeci who set off down the line. He ran 40m, supported by Venables. After drawing the last defender, he passed to Venables who coasted in for his hat trick. Davies completed the scoring with a superb conversion from the touchline.
After resisting a fierce fightback by the opposition, Leeds overturned the ball, kicking it dead and the referee blew the final whistle.
After the match, Director of Rugby, Pete Seabourne said: “Happy new year everyone. Really tough conditions today. It’s a tough place to come. With what’s happened here in the last few weeks, the emotion that they played on in the first half, you can see Tynedale are a good side.
“We needed to be patient. I thought the way we controlled the field position in the second half showed our class in parts. We’ve shown our resilience, coming away with 5 tries, which is really pleasing.
“It’s good to get 2024 off to a winning start and, hopefully, we can kick on against Hull Ionians next week at home.”
Final score 12-35
(HT 12-14)
Match centre
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5 conversions
Thank you to Andy Kennedy for much of the match report.
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