Match report 16 November

Eleven-try Tykes return to winning ways

Eliah Chitiyo was justifiably named The Rugby Paper’s Star Man this week after treating the near 400 strong crowd to some sumptuous finishes.

The rapid winger was all smiles as he continued his fine transition into National League rugby. His first two tries were things of beauty and showed his maturity, as the deceptive stride pattern left multiple defenders bamboozled.

Speaking after the game, a delighted Chitiyo said: “For the first try, I didn’t expect Jerry (Seremaia Bai Turagabeci) to find me on the wing. I was telling him to go down and all of a sudden spotted that he was able to get his arm free and offload. The pressure was then on me to stay in field and finish the move off.”

“I think our first 20 or so minutes showed what we could do, as we responded as a team from the disappointment of last week’s game at Lymm. Our expansive style worked against us at times. However, we played some exciting rugby and showed we are a threat to teams who may have been underestimating us if they saw the Lymm result.”

Aside from Eliah’s quickfire brace, Leeds also touched down through captain Adam Brown who was imperious at the set-piece, and fellow front-rower Jordan Cordice. These tries and James Watts’ superb conversions made sure that Leeds had wrapped up the bonus point before the 30-minute mark.

The visitors kept the game competitive with two tries of their own, both of which were successfully converted by Andrew McMinimee. The fly-half had earlier taken an eight-minute penalty between Chitiyo’s opening salvo. The official match card gave Chester’s first-half tries to Dafydd Williams and Josh Woods respectively.

In the final ten minutes of the first half, both sides were reduced to 14 men with Charlie Venables seeing yellow for an allegedly deliberate knock-on, Chester’s Thomas Furnival followed him to the bin but was lucky to escape permanent expulsion from the match after appearing to make deliberate contact with Harry Whitfield’s face at a breakdown.

Whitfield was rightly aggrieved but channelled his emotion, helping himself to a second-half brace to make our Cheshire visitors pay for their ill-discipline.

Ewan Laughton also helped himself to two opportunist scores, working hard from behind a now dominant pack. Adam Brown had one of his most complete performances this term and was rightly given a well-deserved rest after dotting down for his second try of the day. His replacement Aarin Yorke crossed over in similar fashion, sitting in the pocket at the back of a driving maul.

The missed conversion on Laughton’s second score was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect Tykes’ kicking record, as the versatile Turagabeci narrowly missed from the touchline.

Fans’ favourite Chitiyo rounded off the Tykes’ scoring by completing his hat-trick, sending the Leeds faithful home happy.

Chester’s second-half scores came from the impressive McMinimee on 60 minutes, with Heaton touching down to give the North West outfit a try bonus point in defeat. The final kick of the match was Morgan Bagshaw’s conversion after he replaced McMinimee, who went off with an impressive personal tally of 16 points.

Speaking after the game, Director of Rugby, Pete Seabourne added: “Generally, that was a very pleasing performance. If anything, we need to step things up defensively ahead of a tough trip to Fylde next week. Our challenge is to be ready for what they throw at us, and I believe we will be.

“We scored some nice tries at times, and it was good to welcome some players back after long-term injuries, particularly Aarin Yorke and Kieran Davies. They’ll add competition to our squad as we keep progressing.”