West Leeds RUFC 47 v 8 Heath RFC
West Leeds RUFC returned to winning ways and moved up to fourth place in Yorkshire Division One with this hard-fought but emphatic victory over Halifax-based Heath, writes Glenn Broadbent.
Early domination of the set scrum by Wests was evident, but it was a solo break on 5 minutes that gave the home side the lead with a converted try 7-0.
A strong loose play response forced West’s into a tackle offence giving Heath a penalty to peg back the score on 11 minutes. 7-3
Just four minutes later the home side were pressing again and the ball was pinging around as though it was on a pinball machine, West’s centre collected and scored under the posts. A conversion made the score 14-3.
Wests moved further ahead on 21 minutes, with the ball moving rapidly between the backs hands leading to another converted try 21-7.
The fourth try was scored before the half-hour mark and bonus point secured following West’s exploitation of a poor clearance kick. The conversion failed on this occasion 26-3 HT.
West Leeds started the second half attacking quickly and just minutes after the re-start a defence splitting pass and good off load made it 33-3.
A resilient Heath side to their credit stuck to the task in hand and put a West Leeds under the cosh with some strong attacking moves. West held out and the large crowd survived the display of perfect scrum management by the match official.
Eventually Heath cracked and gave away a penalty and a bit of uncharacteristic petulance saw the visitors marched back 10 meters by Sir. West Leeds took advantage and move the score onto 40-3.
A period of equal play followed with both sides fully committed.
As the clock counted down the lead was extended to 47-3 following a great driving scrum and intelligent break.
Heath continued to give everything and collected a deserved consolation try which was converted 47-8.
West Leeds were glad to get last week’s defeat off their back with this win.
Heath are a big, strong and committed team who have had a tough start to the season, if they continue to play as they did today and show the same level of discipline they will start to move away from the bottom end of the table.
West Leeds next travel to a Scarborough side who lost the seaside derby with Bridlington 33-11 today.
Your correspondent will be on the beach for the day, luckily for him the one by the Ionian Sea, not the North Sea.