North One East: Cleckheaton 8 West Leeds 19

THIS was a disappointing day at the office for Cleckheaton, where lapses in discipline, coupled with the kicking prowess of West Leeds fly half  Dale Breakwell, cost the hosts the league points.

Cleck started with some good news and some bad news.

The good was that Jack Bickerdike was back in the fold after fracturing his thumb in a warm-up game in mid-August.

The bad was that Mikey Hayward failed a fitness test an hour before kick-off on the hamstring injury that he picked up against Bridlington a fortnight earlier.

This meant that back-rower Brad Marsden had to switch to the wing, while 19-year-old Josh Clough, was rewarded with his initial first XV start after coming off the bench seven days earlier at Driffield.

A downpour of rain made the first half quite scrappy, with spilled possession being an issue for both teams.

West Leeds took an early lead through a Breakwell penalty as Cleck infringed about 30 metres from their own sticks.

Cleckheaton’s Mike Swetman levelled the score in similar fashion before West Leeds regained the lead with their second successful kick at goal.

The home side's try came just after the half-hour when Jack Seddon broke from the halfway line and trundled up the touchline.

Bickerdike was in support and weaved his way forward, throwing West Leeds’ last defender off balance before returning the ball to Seddon, who squeezed in at the corner.

Cleckheaton’s 8-6 lead lasted only a couple of minutes, however, before further infringements in their own half gifted Leeds another three points via a penalty.

The sides changed ends, with West Leeds leading 9-8.

Maintaining discipline and not fighting lost causes or handling balls in the ruck were a key feature of coach Thiu Barnard’s half-time talk.

While some players took this on board, others still had the attitude that it didn’t apply to them, and more infringements followed.

The most severe of these came ten minutes after the restart when Josh Plunkett was shown a red card as Cleckheaton were in a strong attacking position, with the referee signalling punching as the cause.

Down to 14 men, Cleckheaton responded strongly and had their most sustained period of pressure in the match.

Matt Piper went close, as did a number of forwards.

It seemed inevitable that Cleckheaton would score and re-take the lead but West Leeds' defence would not be breached.

The away team eventually fought their way upfield and kicked another penalty goal to give them a six-point lead.

As West Leeds continued to press, Jack Seddon was pulled up for a high tackle and shown a yellow card.

Cleckheaton were now down to 13 men and West Leeds had a five-metre scrum.

This turned into a number of five-metre scrums and a line-out as Cleckheaton defended manfully with two men down.

Niall Jackson picked up the man of the match award for topping the tackle count and working tirelessly through this period.

However, the gaps were there, and eventually West Leeds went through one for a try under the sticks, which Breakwell converted to take the score to 19-8.

Cleck were restored to 14 men for the final five minutes and made headway in the vain hope of collecting a losing bonus point but it wasn’t to be and the referee called proceedings to a close.

Cleckheaton need to learn from their mistakes and commit to those small improvements that is all that is required for them to take this league by storm.

This weekend Cleckheaton welcome Alnwick to Moorend for the first time in several years.

A challenging game is expected against the men from Northumberland, who lie one place above Cleckheaton in the table.

Cleckheaton (home to Alnwick): R Evans; C Crotty, J Wilson, M Piper, M Hayward; M Swetman, J Bickerdike; B Thrower, J Crowther, N Jackson, L Pearson, R Piercy, T Austin, J Seddon, B Marsden. Replacements: J Clough, A Piper, L Beasty.