West Leeds RUFC march on against Gateshead

West Leeds 52-12 Gateshead

It would be easy to dismiss this result as ‘job done’ – but the fact is it is job done on another level, writes Glenn Broadbent.

West Leeds are in a national competition they could never have dreamed of a few years ago and they never had to move out of first gear to achieve this 40-point margin victory.

Straight from the kick off Wests were in control, a poor clearance from Gateshead gave the home side the lead after some good work from captain Neave.

On 11 minutes it looked like another North East side were going to be humiliated at Blue Hill Lane but the visitors were made of stronger stuff than their Hartlepool neighbours and resisted all the home sides attempts until the thirtieth minute when West Leeds extended the lead to 21-0.

The next ten minutes saw another two converted tries, one for each side with West’s going 28-0 up before a spirited reply from Gateshead. 28-7.

With the half time whistle approaching a penalty from Leeds took the score to 31-7.

Gateshead started the second have with energy and enterprise and just four minutes in added an unconverted try 31-12.

The game then drifted with Gateshead defending well and West Leeds at times making some simple errors.

It was a further fifteen minutes before James Slater was denied a try with the referee awarding a penalty try to West Leeds just as he was about to be rewarded for his consistent hard work.

The West Leeds pack were in charge all afternoon and their domination was a key part of the game, winger Jack Marshall spending most of the afternoon chatting with the injured Dale Breakwell.

West’s extended the lead to 45-12 on sthe hoyr mark and, as the game drew to a close, took the final score to 52-12.

Novocatrians of Newcastle await them in the next round of cup fixtures in February but before that they face another northern monkey with former player Dan Monk bringing his Old Brods side to Blue Hill Lane next Saturday in a key Yorkshire Division One fixture.