Ilkley 23

LEODIENSIANS 23

IT may have been the after effects of Ilkley's Sportsman's Dinner the previous night which resulted in this defeat for they had conceded the early dominance to Leos whose pack controlled the first half hour in which they scored two tries, one converted, to Ilkley's penalty by Justin Hewitt.

Ilkley started to compete before the break and came more into the game with their forwards beginning to gain more ball.

However, the half-time score remained 12-3 to Leos and deservedly so.

Ilkley continued to take the game to Leos after the break and Darrell Robinson scored a good try after good threequarter handling and Hewitt converted.

Hewitt added a further penalty to take Ilkley into a 13-12 lead and the game was evenly balanced.

Leos then took their turn to score and they moved ahead at 20-13 with a try and a penalty. Hewitt hit back with a penalty and as full-time loomed scrum-half Jimmy Carr surged down the blind side to score an excellent try which Hewitt converted to give Ilkley a 23-20 lead.

Leos were not done however and in injury time they kicked a penalty when Ilkley were alleged to have made an illegal tackle and the scores were tied. Ilkley must learn to take nothing for granted and play to their maximum for the full 80 minutes if they are to maintain a respectable league position.

There are no easy games in Yorkshire One.

The arrival of a hooker will no doubt assist and improve possession and Ilkley must use it well.

They take a break this weekend as Keighley are involved in the NPI Intermediate Cup.

Ilkley then visit local rivals Otliensians and then entertain Bradford Salem in the Yorkshire Shield.

They will need total commitment to get the right results from these two games.

The players will have every help from head coach Simon Tipping who has worked tirelessly and enthusiastically, and Director of Rugby Paul Gray.

Leodiensian 2nds 23

Ilkley Seconds 0

With half the team still revelling until the early hours of Saturday morning, it was on the cards that this was always going to be hard. Ilkley began the game with great promise but when we failed to score from a Scott break after five minutes, the game began to slip away.

Two long range penalties gave Leos a six-point lead before they realised that if they threw the ball wide on every occasion, it was likely to produce an overlap as Obank was still picking himself up from under one of the tables.

Despite courageous tackling from Hartigan and Connor, Leos contrived to score two tries, one of which may have been a foot in touch but Ilkley's touch judge Wilson was competing with Obank in the under the table stakes.

Just after the second try, Scott saw the writing on the wall and felt that a hamstring injury was called for, an Oscar-winning performance that would have done Linford Cristie proud.

With Scott off the field in the second-half and Wilson and Duxbury in the key positions of full-back and fly-half respectively, it was unlikely that Leos were ever going to run away with the game and in fact only managed to cross the line once in the second half which was, of course, the fault of the forwards.

Full marks must go to captain Obank, whose retching, running commentary, and use of the word excellent meant that Ilkley cme off the field thinking they had won.

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