Match report 8 March

Leeds leave Lymm lagging in dominant display

The match was sponsored by Linley & Simpson and Richard Grafton Interiors. Many thanks to Clean Crust Pizza for feeding the crowd.

Director of Rugby, Pete Seaborne was bursting with pride after seeing his side blow away “a quality side”, extending their advantage at the top of National Two North.

The happy head honcho told the club website: “I feel that performance has been coming for a while. Credit to Lymm who came to test us. They certainly did that, particularly first half scoring two very nice tries.

“Once we took control of the game after a slow start, we controlled field position and all aspects of the game. The boys have worked really hard for that win but we can’t rest on our laurels and must take it one game at a time. We will rest up for a few days now before focussing on the trip to Chester next week

Our visitors from Cheshire crossed the M62 full of confidence having inflicted our sole defeat of the campaign in November’s reverse fixture. They made a quick-fire start, scoring after just two minutes with their first meaningful attack. Joseph Senior crossing before Jack Reynolds missed the conversion.

Leeds responded well as Jake Brady burst through a gap in Lymm’s defence, taking full advantage of some superb ball-handling skills from Seremaia Bai Turagabeci. Kit Keith added the simple extras.

Just over 10 minutes later, Tom Williams crossed for Leeds’ second try as Lymm were made to pay for some loose kicking into backfield. Ewan Evans set the tone with a few lung-busting kick returns. The platform gave a lively Keith quick ball to feed the rampaging Williams. The scrum-half added the conversion.

Sam Wadsworth’s unconverted try gave Lymm hope on thirty four minutes but Leeds were in no mood to permit them an easy route back into the contest. They regrouped to have the last laugh of the first half when Evans found himself on the end of Charlie Venables’ delightful break. Keith was once again on target as the official brought the first half to a close.

The home side continued to push the accelerator in the second half with five more tries in an exhibition of attacking rugby. First to touch down was skipper Adam Brown who crossed for his trademark try at the driving maul barely a minute after the restart. Keith uncharacteristically missed the conversion but didn’t allow this to affect his confidence.

Just three minutes had passed when he found his groove again converting Evans’ second try. The powerful winger, who seemingly improves with every outing, showed great composure to collect a bouncing grubber kick through the defensive line. Desperate to join the try-scoring party, Keith found himself able to dot down in the corner after letting his pack do all the hard work as they asserted further dominance at the set piece.

The Tykes’ back line continued to show their opponents no mercy as the game entered the final quarter. Ben Dixon burst the line through the centre channel before passing to Jack Smith, who stretched his legs to score from inside his own half. Replacement kicker James Watts converted.

The versatile Turagabeci, now operating in the back three, produced a trademark run before finding Eddie Brown to bring up the Tykes half century. James Watts added the extras to complete the convincing win.

Speaking just after the final whistle, Head Coach, Pete Lucock, heaped praise on his side, saying: “That is probably our most complete, whole team performance of the season. Credit to Lymm who came to unsettle us and they certainly did so for the first twenty minutes. However, these are the challenges we want and they are the type of opposition who can bring the best out of us.

“We came into the game with bloody noses having lost at their place earlier in the season and I thought the last twenty minutes of the first half, coupled with pretty much all of the second half was a perfect response from us.

“The league table makes for good reading at the moment but with five games to go, we must stay grounded. We are all aware of what will happen if we keep winning but we must treat every team with respect.”

Try scoring Centre, Tom Williams added: “It was a very tough match. They came out of the box quite quickly. We were a bit sleepy at the start to be fair and then we just stuck to our systems, cut our errors out then ran-in a few tries.”

On his own performance, Tom said, “Oh, I thought I was just above average. I managed to get a try and then absolutely butchered another one, but all around I was OK.”

Lymm’s Head Coach, Andy Davies, paid tribute to the Tykes suggesting that their dominance at set piece and physicality was the difference on the day. “Fair play to Leeds, who dominated us at the scrum and have clearly their homework on us. They provide us with a benchmark of where we need to be as a club and that is something we will be looking at if we are to compete at the top end of the division next year.”