Leeds Tykes prove to be made of 'the right stuff' as tougher tests await in National One

Needing two wins to secure the win, Tykes enjoyed a narrow 27-24 triumph over Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Tigers to maintain their push for the title.

However, that title was to be theirs earlier than expected after closest rivals Sheffield slipped up away to Lymm, losing 38-29.

Cue the celebrations, or so you would think.

Head coach Pete Lucock said that there were mainly muted celebrations afterwards as they were actually expecting to win it today (Friday) at home to Harrogate.

“It was a bit of a weird one,” said Lucock. “Because I don’t think anybody expected it to be last weekend - we thought Sheffield would beat Lymm.

“We found out just after the final whistle, there were whispers of it around during the handshakes afterwards because the spectators were celebrating because obviously they knew.

“We were in a huddle in the middle of the pitch and Pete Seabourne (director of rugby) came over to us and told us.

“I imagine Friday night is going to be when we properly celebrate and it sinks in. We hadn’t planned to do anything, a few of us went for a few beers afterwards but nothing crazy.

“If Sheffield won all their games and we won all our games, it would have been this Friday when we were expected to win the league, so nobody was expecting it to happen.

“We were just focusing on ourselves, especially after last year when we got caught because we were paying too much attention to what everyone else was going to do.”

Securing promotion has been a two-year project for the Tykes, coming so close last season, when they were elbowed aside by Rotherham Titans after losing to Fylde on the second-last weekend of the season.

Given the amount of injuries the Tykes have had this season and the amount of setbacks they’ve had to deal with, Lucock says they are better-equipped to deal with promotion.

“We’ve only lost three games in two years so it’s almost been like a two-year project,” added Lucock. “We’re probably better equipped to go on now, we’ve got a lot more boys playing a lot more rugby and we’ve had more time to instill foundation stuff and we’ve learned to win games in different ways.

“It was obviously gutting last year, but trying to take some positives out of it, we’ve had to do it tough at times which will help us when we go up next year.

“Last year we played some really great stuff and were blowing teams away. This year, the team has changed a lot. We've had to rely a lot more on the squad rather than moments of individual brilliance.

“The core group of players have been together for a while and the leadership which we’re seeing from them is only going to serve us well next season.

“We know how to win games in all sorts of ways, which is one of the most valuable things you can bring into a league like National One.”

Despite the league being won, Lucock says the Tykes won’t be taking their foot off the gas for the final couple of games.

“Now that’s been taken away (the pressure), it allows us to open up and play some really nice stuff with an eye on next year,” he explained.

“As a group, we said we still wanna finish the season pretty strongly. We only want that one league loss beside our name.”

“In the backline, we won’t have that luxury [to rotate and give players game time] because we’re pretty much at the bare bones in there as we’ve unfortunately had a couple more injuries but people will put their hands up and we’ll look at a few guys.

“If we don’t perform against Harrogate or Tynedale next week, people remember the last two games and we’ve lost three games this season. It’s about enjoying each other’s company now though.”