West Leeds 74 Wath Upon Dearne 17
The descamisados of Wath (they left their shirts in the Dearne Valley) needed West Leeds to lend them their third choice kit and that was pretty much all the home side gave them all afternoon, writes Glenn Broadbent.
Wath were sitting in sixth place in the division having only conceded 242 points all season, so with this in mind and the 12-12 draw in the corresponding fixture, a close result was expected.
West Leeds scored their 1st try with an early break the ball having passed through four pairs of hands found Danny Booth with space on the wing and he went over in the 2nd minute. Breakwell failed to convert from a difficult position. 5-0.
Three minutes later Gary Stokes picked up the ball in his own half and left Wath in his wake for the 2nd try, this time Breakwell made no mistakes 12-0.
Wath then hit Wests with a 12-minute forward onslaught which despite some valiant defending resulted in a Monghan try which was converted by Pendlebury. 12-7.
West Leeds were slightly disrupted when Booth left the field with a slight knock to be replaced by Josh Rushforth. The disruption didn’t last long and strong running from Jack Marshall led to a Sam Neave try again converted by Breakwell. 19-7.
Three minutes later Booth was back on the field and resumed his good work this time sending Mark Calderwood over in the bottom corner and Breakwell converted an acutely difficult kick. 26-7.
Declan Penny was sent to the sin bin for pulling down in the lineout in the 31st minute and Wath took advantage with an unconverted try 2 minutes later. 26-12. The missing man did not hamper Wests who hit back with a penalty conversion from Breakwell on 38 minutes. 29-12.
With the game moving into first half added time Wath committed a pointless foul on the troublesome Booth and from the resulting penalty Calderwood scored his 2nd of the afternoon. A fantastic conversion from Breakwell took the score at half time to 36-12.
With Penny back on the field West Leeds resumed the scoring on 41 minutes with a try from Jamie Cockin which Breakwell failed to convert 41-12.
The numbers were only equal for a few minutes as Dan Bird was sent from the field of play for uncharacteristic foul play. This did not get in the way of West Leeds and following a cross field kick from Breakwell Marshall added another try and Breakwell did the honors. 48-12.
Captain Sam Neave added another try with a strong run from his own half and Breakwell converted for 55-12.
Neave was on hand again with another break sending Calderwood over for his hat-trick, Breakwell added the 2 points 62-12.
Some simple but devastatingly effective rugby from Wests saw a series of passes result in yet another try this time for Booth and the usual followed. 69-12.
Wath stuck to their task and added a try from forward Simon Limes but they failed to convert 69-17.
Wath looked as though they would score again but were denied by a terrific wrap round tackle over the line by Calderwood to prevent the grounding.
Wests responded quickly with a Damien Pearson try following some pat a cake handling. 74-17.
Fully time and a result nobody was expecting made even more impressive by the fact West Leeds played almost half of the game with 14 men.
Huddersfield YMCA 3rd XV v West Leeds 2nd XV
A totally dominant display by the 2nds saw them come away 0-28 winners in this Championship Merit Table game. The hero of the afternoon being veteran Phil Thompson who converted all four West Leeds tries.
