West Leeds 26-24 Bees

The Bees succumbed to a fourth defeat in succession, but collected a sixteenth bonus point along the way, which means that the Wagon Lane side only slipped one place in the division to fifth. This defeat seems to end any hope that the club had of being involved in the promotion race as Anthony Posa's men are now 16 points off the pace set by Morpeth and Scarborough with nine games left to play.

The home side remain in the relegation slots, despite this excellent win, but there seemed enough spirit about how they played to suggest that they might just fight their way out of the bottom three to safety in their remaining fixtures.

The game hinged on a five minute period around the half hour mark where the Bees gave away two interception tries where a West Leeds player snatched a loose pass out of the air as Bradford and Bingley pressed the West Leeds line. First to gallop away was Sam Thornton on 27 minutes as he was first to react to a loose pass in the middle of the pitch. No sooner had the West Leeds supporters finished celebrating that score than they saw Alex Hughes making a 95 metre dash to the right hand corner after he snatched a pass which should have put a Bees player in at the left hand corner of the West Leeds try line.Despite the spirited length of the field charge after the West Leeds man, Ante Majic was not quite fast enough to catch Hughes as he scampered away.

Before those two scores went in, West Leeds were only two points behind their visitors, although it looked as if one of the Bees attacks would surely break the last line of the home defence as West Leeds were pinned in their own 22 for long periods. West Leeds had opened the scoring on 9 minutes when left winger Eliah Chitiyo wriggled away from the Bees defence in the corner to scoot over for the score. The Bees replied 5 minutes later as scrum half Lance Taylor floated out a nicely weighted kick to his right which was collected by Bees' top scorer, Jack Malthouse, although the wing man still had a fight on his hands to make the whitewash. Taylor slotted the conversion, making it 7 - 5 to the visitors with around fifteen minutes played.

The Bees pack had an upper hand in the tight exchanges and it made no difference which personnel the coaching team rotated on or off in the Bees eight, the home pack enjoyed a torrid time in the scrums throughout. The Bees lineout did not function quite so efficiently and this was one area where the Bees were guilty of giving up possession far too easily. However, it seemed to matter not as the visitors continued to attack from everywhere and anywhere during the opening half hour but could not quite make that final telling break to claim try number two. The two interception tries then put a slightly different complexion on the game as the Bees were now chasing a significant deficit. As has become customary this season, the Bees shunned the opportunity to kick a penalty here and there, preferring to keep the high tempo and keep West Leeds back pedalling. Right on half time, the Bees got their second try as Tom Bacon battered his way over the line. Keir Breakwell had just slotted a penalty for the home side, so until Bacon's timely intervention,it looked like a dominant Bees side would be turning round at 20 points to seven in arrears, very much against the run of play.
With Taylor adding the extras, the sides came out for the second half separated by six points, but within two minutes Sam Marshall had added a penalty to stretch the home advantage to nine at 23 points to 14, and five minutes later, the same player increased the deficit to twelve with a second penalty. On 52 minutes, the Bees collected a third try as Tom Cummins made the final hard yards to collect a score which Taylor improved. The Bees were now only a single try behind their hosts at 26 - 19 with fully 27 minutes to play. Maybe there was a collective belief in the visiting side that they would get that winning score with so much time left, but four minutes after the Cummins score, Taylor took the pragmatic option to slot a penalty, bringing his side to within two. However, no matter how much the Bees bumped and barged up the middle of the field or tried to spread the ball wide around the resolute West Leeds defence, they could not find that final score. With temperatures plummeting the hopes of the Bees Supporters sank with the thermometer as the spirits of the home support soared in the opposite direction as they claimed an unlikely but deserved win.

By
Nick Patterson