Match report 25 January

Leeds lull benefits Billingham

Leeds Tykes secured victory over a spirited Billingham team, maintaining their position at the top of National 2 North. Billingham started strong, with Peter Evans converting an early penalty to take the lead. Leeds found their response when Jonny Teague finished off a brilliant break through the centre channel by Tom Williams. Kit Keith successfully added the extras. Seven minutes later, Billingham narrowed the gap with Evans’ second penalty.

Tykes’ outside centre, Ben Dixon, extended his side’s lead, powering over the line to score. Keith was once again on target with the conversion. However, Billingham struck back when Elliott Husband forced his way over from a quick tap penalty, with Evans converting to keep the visitors within touching distance. Just before halftime, Ewan Evans created a spectacular break down the wing, setting up Charlie Venables to score. Keith maintained his 100% conversion rate in the first half, leaving Leeds ahead at 21-13 going into the break.

The second half saw both teams continue to fight for dominance. Ewan Evans added his name to the scoresheet with a try that sealed the bonus point for Leeds, following a flowing move down the pitch. Although he missed that conversion, Ollie Williams stepped up later to convert Matt Burke’s try, which resulted from a fantastic combination play involving Eddie Brown and Ben Dixon. This try brought Leeds to 33 points, rounding off their scoring for the day.

Despite trailing, Billingham refused to back down. Leeds lowered the momentum and dropped their intensity allowing the Teeside team to control the final 15 minutes of the match, scoring two tries through Joseph Scarborough and Nathan Myers, both of which were successfully converted. This late surge earned Billingham a valuable bonus point and made for a tense finish to the game.

After the match, Director of Rugby Pete Seabourne said: “Fair play to Billingham; they came to play, they had a good go at us, they are fighting for their lives. I thought we played some really good stuff at times and then we played some dumb stuff. I’m really pleased; we looked at 1 or 2 players trying out different positions and combinations that have gone pretty well. Overall, I’m happy with their flexibility.

“Five points, job done, you can’t ask for more than that. We were better than we were last week and are improving every week.”

Try scorer Ben Dixon added: “We wanted a bit of a response from last week. We weren’t too happy with last week. We let it slip a bit and there’s been a lot of talk this week about how we want to respond and we did for 60 minutes and then we sort of went back into it a bit. There’s plenty to work on obviously, but we’re pretty happy with that performance. Billingham are a decent side and they never let up. We took our foot off the gas for the last 10 minutes. We’ll look to keep going for 80 next week.”

Commenting on being team captain: “It’s easy with this squad because there are many leaders. You can just sort of delegate it. Like when I was blowing hard under the posts, you just say ‘Brady, can you have a word, please ‘cause I can’t breathe’.”