Leeds Tykes are National League 2 North’s official Christmas number 1
The match was sponsored by our main sponsor: Titan Wealth
A bumper crowd of almost 700 people saw Leeds Tykes end the calendar year with a flourish by beating local rivals Otley 33 – 10 in the club’s annual Headingley fixture.
The forward pack were dominant throughout and really took the game by its horns in the second half as Leeds’ superior muscle and fitness shone through.
Our visitors from Cross Green had the better of the opening few minutes but Joe Rowntree was unable to capitalise, narrowly missing his long-range penalty attempt.
Leeds had barely entered opposition territory before Otley’s attacking structure broke down. The ball went through several pairs of hands before being shipped out to Eliah Chitiyo who arced round the outside to score. James Watts’ conversion was unsuccessful.
Rowntree atoned for his earlier miss to get Otley moving, which sparked Leeds into gear again. Waves of front-foot attack followed before Charlie Venables forced his way over after a neat sidestep. James Watts tagged on the extras.
The scores became tight at the interval with Christopher Jackson crashing his way over, Edward Crossland converted to make it 12 – 10.
The Leeds lineout provided a platform for everything that was good about their second-half display. Three excellent examples of the driving maul led to their second-half tries, two of which were credited to captain Adam Brown with Toby Williams getting in on the act with six minutes remaining. Watts converted the first of Adam’s tries expertly from the touchline before being replaced by Seremaia Turagabeci who added the final touches to a comfortable display.
Speaking after the game, Director of Rugby, Pete Seabourne said: “After an indifferent first half, we gave the boys some harsh words at halftime. They responded really well to get us over the line. Our fitness levels really showed late on as we played some nice stuff.
“Full credit to Otley who played their part in a good spectacle. They came to really challenge us, and they did that, particularly in the first half.”
Head coach Pete Lucock added: “When we took control of the game in the second half, we got the spoils we deserved. We seemed to play within ourselves in the first half as the occasion of playing at Headingley got to us a little bit. After speaking as a group at the interval, we got the reaction we wanted.”
This result secures our position as National League Rugby’s National League 2 North’s official Christmas number one – top of the table heading into the festive season. A fantastic achievement to close out the year.
Thank you for your support in 2024. We’ll march on together in 2025.
⌛ Final score 33-10
⏳ (HT 12-10)
👈 Your Leeds Tykes scorers
ℹ️ Match centre
✍️ Thanks to Ben Cropper for our match report
In this short video, Ewan Laughton talks about our 33-10 victory over Otley.
There’s also a snippet of action from the match and Adam Brown’s 2nd try.
Thanks to Joe Cotton for the content.
