Sat 5 Feb 2022, 15:00
Plymouth Albion’s set piece dominance proved decisive as they claimed the bragging rights in a hard-fought encounter.
The visitors were in the game for the full eighty minutes but their cause was not helped by them being on the wrong side of a few 50-50 judgements from the officials. The challenge was made harder after they received two second half yellow cards.
The Tykes took an early lead in the 10th minute when Harry Jukes showed his strength to break the cover defence and dot down. The conversion missed as the Tykes took a 5-point lead.
Midway through the half, a series of scrum penalties gave Albion territory. Henry Clement’s audacious dummy created a gap for him to go over and level the scores.
Soon after, Charlie Venables slotted over an easy penalty to regain the lead for the Tykes.
A converted try gave Albion the lead at half time. It came about through good interplay between centres Jeremy To’a and Setareki Raumakita, the latter diving over in the corner despite the best efforts of the Tykes drift defence. Tom Putt slotted over the extras from the touchline to send his side in at 12-8.
Leeds came out revitalised in the second period and were unfortunate not to score on several occasions after being rebuffed by some stern Plymouth rear-guard action. Eventually the pressure paid off as flanker Rahat Choudhury touched down on the back of an attacking scrum; with that the Tykes regained the lead at 12 -13.
Just before the hour mark, the hosts hit back through Alex Ducker, who was cleverly put through a gap by fly-half Phil Jones. Putt converted again to extend his side’s lead.
It was at this point that Plymouth’s forward prowess rose to the fore, resulting in yellow cards being shown to Choudhury and Dom Hardman respectively. With the visitors reduced to 14, the hosts added a penalty to make it 22-13 before Hardman’s enforced rest.
Following the penalty, the Tykes defended bravely before finally buckling under sustained pressure from a strong driving maul. Hooker Harry Wilkinson claimed the hosts’ bonus point try after emerging from under a heap of bodies with the ball.
Jukes claimed a brace with a late consolation try but the conversion once again drifted wide to leave the final score reading 29-18.
Summarising after the game, Head Coach Jon Callard said: “It was a disappointing day at the office for us and we were really made to pay at the set piece. I’m proud of the effort we put in, but we must learn to manage games that are as disjointed as this one. Fair play to Plymouth, they capitalised on their strength at the scrum.”
