Bees lose a close game at West Leeds

The Bees under 14s let a half time lead slip as they fell to a disappointing defeat at West Leeds.
The first half began promisingly with the Bees straight on to the attack, showing no ill-effects from the limited preparation time. The Bees were rewarded when centre Alexander Leadbeater beat several tackles from twenty-five metres out to score in the corner. Louis Wilkinson couldn’t add the conversion. At that stage it was the Bees dominating territory and possession. However, a series of errors led to West Leeds equalising. A great break by Ryan McNicholl was wasted when he was correctly penalised metres short of the try line for not releasing the ball after he had been tackled. What followed from the ensuing penalty was a forewarning of what would occur in the second half. West Leeds took a tap penalty and passed it to their strongest player who ran through too many weak tackles to go 95 metres to score under the posts. Fortunately for the Bees, West Leeds missed the conversion.
Undeterred, the Bees went back on the attack. Their efforts were rewarded when Ryan McNicholl made another searing break, and although he was tackled just short of the try line, he had the vision to see the excellent support from winger Conor Summers, who scored. Louis Wilkinson, unfortunately, couldn’t add the conversion.
The remainder of the half was more evenly contested, but the hosts finished with pressure on the Bees line as the Bees conceded several consecutive penalties for high tackles. The Bees defence, however, remained firm, and the half finished with the Bees leading 10-5.
The second half began catastrophically for the Bees as their tackling deserted them, as did the progress they had shown the previous week at the breakdown. West Leeds quickly ran in three unanswered tries, one of which was converted. The third of those tries, perhaps, had the greatest effect as the Bees players felt that it came from the first of several contentious decisions given against them, in that they maintained that the West Leeds player had not grounded the ball before he lost it forward over the try line. The try was, however, awarded, and some of the Bees players thereafter spent too much time concentrating on the referee’s performance rather than their own. They quickly need to realise that arguing with a referee will get them nowhere.
The Bees saw a glimmer of light when Ryan McNicholl again led from the front, and correctly channelled his frustration to go on a barnstorming seventy metre run through the heart of West Leeds players to score out on the right. The conversion was missed.
The Bees had their tails up, and went back on the attack. Unfortunately, the next score went to West Leeds after a series of mistakes. Firstly, the Bees were aggrieved when they were awarded only a scrum when a West Leeds player in an off-side position clearly collected a knock-on from his team mate, and consequently the Bees lost their only scrum of the game. The team could only blame themselves as the West Leeds back collected the ball and ran through very weak attempted tackles to score an unconverted try.
The Bees picked themselves up, and got back into the game with a contender for try of the season from scrum-half Rishi Anand, when a great side-step saw him fool the West Leeds defence and allow him to dart through the gap and go fifty metres for a try under the posts. Louis Wilkinson kicked the conversion to bring the score back to 27-22.
Sadly, the Bees conceded the next try in controversial circumstances, when a head-high tackle on Ryan McNicholl went unnoticed by the referee. The Bees failed to play to the whistle and allowed West Leeds to steal the ball. They then compounded their error by coming up with more weak tackling to allow West Leeds to again score an unconverted try.
The Bees got themselves back within five points when the forwards finally woke up in the second half, and capitalised on another break to win the ruck and allow Joe Jagger to plunge over from a metre out for an unconverted try.
Sadly, the Bees reverted to type, and allowed their concentration to waver after feeling aggrieved by another decision of the referee which didn’t go in their favour, but which did not directly result in a score for the home side. The Bees players can only have themselves to blame as from their own scrum subsequent to the contentious incident they knocked the ball on to concede possession, and then failed to make a tackle as the West Leeds player waltzed trough untouched from their scrum.
The Bees had the last word with the last play of the match, and showed what they could have achieved if they had spent the half concentrating on their own performances. Alexander Leadbeater made another good break, and was twice involved in the move which saw Joe Boardman supporting to score out on the left for yet another unconverted try, to leave the final score as 37-32.
An excellent turnout from the Bees as seventeen players travelled. Those involved were as follows: Louis Wilkinson, Harry Lynch, Luke Duffy, Owen Cooper, Alexander Leadbeater, Ryan McNicholl, Conor Summers, Jake Wheeler, Rishi Anand, Ethan Pentith, Myles Evans, Mark Atkinson, Joe Jagger, Dominic Lewis, Joe Boardman, Lewis Jolaoso and James Ball.