Sponsored by
Leeds Rhinos throw it away at Whitehaven
STOPPED: Jay Pitts feels the force of a Whitehaven defender.
A second half collapse left Leeds Rhinos red faced in Whitehaven.
What looked like being an impressive victory for Rhinos’ second string, in their final pre-season game, ended in a painful lesson as they let slip a 20-point lead to lose 34-32.
At under-20s level Rhinos have some talented players with great potential, but they still have a lot to learn – particularly how to hold on to a lead.
In Rhinos youngsters’ two previous trial games, at York and Hunslet, they built a healthy advantage only to fade out of the contest.
It was a similar story again as Rhinos led 32-12 just after half-time, but then saw Haven score four unanswered tries to snatch an unlikely win.
Flurry
As at York, Rhinos saw very little ball in the second period as they conceded a flurry of penalties – five in succession after half-time. Local referee Gareth Hewer’s final count was 9-4 in Haven’s favour.
Travelling on the day to take on an older, more experienced Co-op Championship One outfit was always going to be a tough assignment.
Rhinos could be happy with much of their attack – the 12 tries were shared – and physically they more than matched their more experienced hosts in the first half, but they found the going much tougher after captain Brad Singleton went off.
they held Haven players up over the whitewash a couple of times and defended their line strongly for long spells, but conceded some soft tries and were caught out on their left flank on too many occasions.
They clearly need to learn how to get back on track when things begin to go wrong, which is something they haven’t been able to do in pre-season.
Haven went ahead after eight minutes when Ben Karalius’ kick was spilled by Ben Jones-Bishop and Chris Fleming picked up to scamper over.
Carl Rudd landed the first of his five conversions, but Jonathan Youds dropped the re-start and Loz Hamzat picked the ball up in an offside position.
On the final tackle from the penalty Ollie Olds’ terrific pass cut out three players and found James Duckworth, who crashed over at the corner for an unconverted try.
Duckworth was preferred to Jamel Chisholm on Rhinos’ left wing and Jake Normington – who is dual-registered with Keighley Cougars – was alongside him in the centre, replacing the unavailable Jimmy Keinhorst.
Olds – a Welsh under-18 international signed from Crusaders’ academy – got a start at scrum-half with Sean Casey switching to hooker.
Stevie Ward then stepped up to the plate to steer Rhinos into a 10-point lead by the 26th minute. Firstly he sliced Haven open through the middle before putting the supporting Matty Nicholson – a dual-registered player with Dewsbury Rams – through to score with his first touch off the bench.
That was on 21 minutes and three minutes later Ward found himself in possession a few metres out, bamboozled the defence with his foot work and powered through to cross between the posts.
On 28 Normington intercepted Brad Crellin’s pass and stormed over from 40 metres out, Casey’s third goal making it 22-6.
Scott McAvoy scored a fine solo try in reply, but Leeds finished the half in style as Jay Pitts, Matty Syron and Normington worked the ball to Duckworth, who crossed by the flag and just managed to get the ball down before being shoved into touch.
Olds’ tremendous touchline goal sent Leeds in with a 28-12 half-time lead, but crucially he missed from almost in front straight afterwards when Danny Bravo shoved off Andrew Beattie after good work by Kyle Quinlan and Olds.
At that stage a Haven win looked as likely as Pakistan triumphing in the second cricket Test, but Rhinos came up with their own spectacular collapse.
Hamzat pulled a try back for Haven on 48 minutes, three minutes later Rudd’s towering kick picked out Max Wiper who made the catch on the line and dabbed the ball down and then Brad Crellin crossed on 59, Rudd’s three goals making it a two-point ball game.
Andrew Bauer sneaked over to edge Haven ahead with 12 minutes left and Leeds never had an opportunity to pull the game from the fire.
Rhinos under-20s coach Chris Plume refused to use inexperience as an excuse for his side’s second half slump.
He said: “There were a couple of older heads in there and people who’ve played enough rugby to know how to deal with it when momentum starts going against you.
“Out of the three games I thought it was our best half of rugby in the first half – followed by our worst of the three.”
Whitehaven: Youds, Hamzat, Bauer, McAvoy, Fleming Rudd, Karalious, Haughton, Gee, Isakka, Barker, Doran, Beattie. Subs (all used): Sice, Haggerty, Crellin, Wiper, O,Neil, C Smith.
Leeds Rhinos: Watson, Jones-Bishop, Pring, Normington, Duckworth, Ward, Olds, Ambler, Casey, D Smith, Stott, Pitts, Singleton. Subs (all used): Quinlan, Nicholson, Syron, Bravo, Nicholson, Leary.
Referee: Gareth Hewer (Whitehaven).
Attendance: 855.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.