An entertaining tale of two halves
Leeds Tykes scored six tries, five of them in a rampant second-half display, to edge out a gutsy Dings Crusaders in the Bristol sunshine.
The hosts scored two tries during a dominant opening 20 minutes, with Leeds struggling to trouble their defensive line. Number nine Thomas Knight was the first to score, followed by back-rower Anthony Welling, with both tries converted by Louie Sinclair.
Just after the half-hour mark, Leeds produced their first sustained attack of the match. Kristan Dobson made a strong run upfield before finding Eddie Crossland, who continued the forward momentum. He, in turn, found Ben Turpin, who offloaded to Matt Salisbury to score. Crossland converted to make it 14-7.
Not to be outdone, Dings quickly re-established their dominance, shipping the ball wide for full-back Thomas Foot to cross out wide. Sinclair added the extras to give the hosts a 21-7 half-time lead.
Salisbury scored his second try of the game, and the Tykes’ first of the second half, by jumping to collect a kick ahead and touch down. Crossland added the extras to narrow the gap to 21-14.
Turpin broke down the wing before passing back to Salisbury on his inside shoulder, allowing the latter to complete his hat-trick. Crossland converted to level the scores at 21 apiece.
Dings were penalised for offside, leading to a quickly taken penalty by Crossland. He tapped and made good ground before finding Salisbury, who continued the forward momentum and then shipped the ball wide to Turpin to score. The fast winger touched down to put the Tykes in front for the first time at 21-26, as the conversion attempt drifted wide.
Dings threw everything at the Leeds defence, winning several penalties that took them inside the Leeds 22. However, a mixture of brutal defence and poorly timed final passes kept them scoreless. The next example of this led to a Leeds try.
An ill-timed pass in the Dings 22 was intercepted by Kristan Dobson, who ran from his own try line, outpacing the opposition defenders to cross the try line and give Leeds a 10-point buffer. Crossland added the extras to give Leeds a measure of comfort at 21-33.
Leeds crossed for their sixth and final try of the match through substitute Tom Williams. Crossland added a superb touchline conversion to make it 21-40.
Seven minutes from the end, Jamie Major was the unlucky recipient of a team yellow card for repeated infringements at the breakdown. From the resulting penalty, the ball was kicked to the corner, and Dings had the power to crash over for their try bonus point. The conversion narrowed the gap to 28-40.
Prop Archie Stanley crossed for Dings’ fifth and final try of the game. The last two tries were converted by replacement back Sam Berry, who continued Sinclair’s good work from the tee.
The last five minutes were nervy, with the 14 men of Leeds doing everything to hold on for victory while Dings relentlessly pushed for a decisive score of their own. Thankfully, referee Callum Watson called time on proceedings, and both sides sank to the floor in exhaustion, with the final score 35-40.
Speaking after the match, Director of Rugby Pete Seabourne said: “Overall, we are pleased with the win, but it gives us a lot to work on going into next week. Dings came out with a clear game plan and used the conditions better than us in the first half. We turned round at 21-7 knowing there was work to be done. We then scored 33 unanswered points to put ourselves in control. Sadly, we were reduced to 14 men close to the end and were forced to hang on a little when they scored two tries. Overall, we’ll take the win, but I look forward to a more complete performance next week at home.”
⌛ Final score 35-40
⏳ (HT 21-7 )
👈 Scoring for Leeds Tykes
ℹ️ Match centre
🙏 Thanks to Ben Cropper for our match report
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