NURL 1sts – 12
Leeds Met 1sts – 20
‘This was the hardest game we have had in my three years including Grand Finals’ was Leeds Met and GB students coach Paul Fletcher’s sentiments after a bruising encounter at Cochrane park. Indeed with Leeds coming off the back of an 80 point victory in their previous match and demoralising memories of last seasons drubbing by a similar score line still lingering, it was not surprising that even NURLS most enthusiastic of players, Dave Furniss (not Furnish), rated their chances of somewhere between slim and C.J. Smullen. Talk prior to the game was to ‘keep the score down’ and ‘play with pride’ and Newcastle ended up doing a lot more than that.
Rick Davison with some neat passing
The game kicked off at a frenetic pace, with both sides not giving much away in terms of territory until Leeds took advantage of some excess numbers down the left hand flank and scored an unconverted try in the corner after 15 minutes. Many thought this was the queue for the opening of the floodgates, however NURLS defence remained as tough as some of Jack Webbs conquests, and Leeds just couldn’t break it.
With the last play of the first half, Newcastle hoisted a kick close to the Mets try line which was brilliantly taken by Liam Magee and, after a slick handling by Adam Brown, Dave ‘the idiot’ Furniss scored in the corner. The conversion attempt was duly added by John Thompson and the half-time whistle was blown with Newcastle 6-4 up against the national champions.
The second half began with an early Leeds try which was converted and it appeared that Newcastle had run out of steam, and only through some rugged defending did NURL manage to prevent the Met from scoring, however the defending was beginning to take its toil and several players had leave the field for treatment, (perhaps no coincidence that the treatment was given by two female trainee physios, and those receiving treatment where some of NURLS most notorious ‘lotharios’) and Leeds managed another try.
The injuries saw the introduction of fresh legs proved to give NURL back some impetus and a swift move 25 metres involving great work from Rick Davison saw him offloading to Steve Moorecroft who continued his habit of scoring with undoubtedly the try of the match. The conversion followed and the score line was 14-12 with 20 minutes to play with NURL looking the better team.
10 minutes from time there was a moment controversy when NURL where denied a try which would have seen an historic victory, with the referee adjudging a forward pass, Newcastle by this stage had given it their all, they were running on empty and Leeds scored in the closing minutes to secure a 20-14 victory. The monumental performance was epitomised by Mike Wards Herculean effort, in a game with several Great Britain internationals, he was by far the stand out player on the pitch. Hopefully the teams performance will see them starting to fulfil their potential.
By John Thompson