Sat 11 Sep 2021, 15:00
On a warm, sunny, early autumn day in leafy south-west London, Leeds Tykes were well beaten by a slick Rosslyn Park side.
Park scored their first points from a penalty after 4 minutes. Tykes had a chance to reply with two penalties of their own; both were missed. Ben Howard scored the first of his tries after several phases of play. This was followed by Brandon Jackson scoring before Charlie Venables put Tykes first points on the board. Arthur Ellis scored from a maul after a series of off-side decisions against the away side.
Some strong defence from the Tykes stopped a try out wide from a well-planned Park move. The ball was quickly moved to the other wing, with a near-certain try stopped. A third attack from in the centre of the pitch was repelled. Henry Robinson did go over in the corner to make it 29-3 at half-time.
There was a deceptively strong breeze on the pitch, which the visitors had been playing into in the first half. With the wind behind them, their second-half kick-off went straight out. Outside half, Owen Waters converted his own try that resulted from that error. Tykes managed a period of pressure and put several phases together that came to nothing as the try was deemed to be held up.
The referee (who had a good game and communicated well with his assistants) had a word with both captains after a series of free-kick or penalties from each side. This resulted in a penalty to Tykes being overturned. As a result, Park scored from the scrum.
Will Hardwick broke away after the backs had moved the ball around the centre of the pitch before he spotted a gap to score Tykes only try. Venables added the extras. Park added three more tries before the end of match, although not before Tobi Ademakin was helped off after being crunched in a tackle he made. Let’s hope it’s not a bad an injury as it first looked. Final score 60-10.
Phil Davies, Director of Rugby, said: “Once again, the lads stuck at it. Our rebuild is a long journey and a massive challenge. The players are only going to get better moving forward. We are seeing the areas we work on in training being put into practice during the game. We need to fix the errors.”
Tykes' try scorer Will Hardwick
Attendance: 600
