Leeds Carnegie 22 Moseley 21: Rhinos show way as Leeds edge towards the play-offs

The Rhinos, inconsistent at best during the 2011 regular season, proved to be the top team in Super League in the month that mattered.

So no matter how green with naivete, how indecisive in key areas Leeds Carnegie may be in the Championship’s 22-game regular season, positioning themselves in the top eight ahead of the post season is all that matters.

Yet just getting into a position to challenge for an instant return to the top flight come the end of the season, is proving difficult for Diccon Edwards’s boys. Yesterday, they needed a penalty from Tommy Bell in the final throes of the game to see off perennial relegation candidates Moseley, when for much of the second half it looked like anxiety and indiscipline had undone all the hard work of the first half, when they built a 13-0 lead.

For all the head-scratching a discussion on rugby play-offs induces, a degree in sports science is not required to determine the difference between the Rhinos and Carnegie.

Brian McDermott’s League men were experienced, serial winners of major trophies. Edwards’s Carnegie are a young team in the making, and a long way from completion. Establishing themselves in the promotion play-off positions is by no means guaranteed, especially after another 80 minutes of punctured promise.

They may just have a chance though if they can match their heart and desire with attacking guile, resolute defence and a cool head.

“A lot of teams would have given up after that,” said Edwards after a final 10 minutes in which the lead changed hands three times. “We showed great heart and it’s a massive win for us. But we’ve got to keep improving and we’ve got to keep winning.

“The hardest thing about momentum is starting it. Now we’ve done that we’ve got to keep it going. I was disappointed with the performance but not the result.”

In an error-strewn first half their looked to be only one winner – Leeds.

Bell kicked two penalties and a conversion to a fine team try on 35 minutes. Joe Ford cut a line towards the left and fed Ollie Richards, who teamed up with Stevie McColl to create the space and the telling support run on the inside was made by Jacob Rowan who dashed across the line. Rowan and Freer were the stand-out players of the first half, breaking the gain line repeatedly. But for all the hard yards gained Leeds kept shooting themselves in the foot with handling errors.

Oliver Thomas reduced the visitors’ arrears to 10 points with a penalty on the stroke of half-time but Leeds were seemingly in a commanding position.

A second Thomas penalty after an energetic start to the second period by the Moseley backs threatened to play on the brittle confidence of Leeds.

And even though their defence proved the measure of the Mose attack after the visitors launched a sustained offensive on the green line, the momentum had shifted and Leeds could not regain the initiative.

The outcome was thrown into doubt with a wonderful individual try from William Robinson, who set off running in the centre of the field before bursting towards the right wing, leaving defenders in his wake. Thomas could not convert from the touchline, but seeds of doubt had been sown.

Bell kept the demons at bay with a close-range penalty but when Phil Nilsen and Phil Swainston were sin-binned, decimating the front row, Leeds’s anxiety grew, and a penalty try was inevitable.

Richards’s conversion edged Moseley ahead for the first time with 75 minutes on the clock.

Cue tremendous heart from Leeds. Firstly they showed their defiance to storm back upfield and force a holding-on error from Moseley, allowing Bell to kick a tricky penalty to reclaim the lead.

Then when Thomas had swung the pendulum back towards Moseley with a penalty when they should have perhaps have tried to maul their way past Leeds’s weak pack, Bell again was spot on with a kick from 35 metres after Moseley were forced into an infringement.

Relief all round but there remains much to be worked on.

Leeds Carnegie: Bell, McColl (Rieder 62), Blackett, Barker, Richards, Ford (S Barrow 46), Shaw (Hampson 40); MacDonald, Freer (Nilsen 53), Swainston (Young 73), Hemingway (D Barrow 46), Beck, Rowan, Walker, Burrows. Unused replacements: Denman.

Moseley: Carter, Thomas, King, Reay, Robinson, Davies, Glynn (Brown 53); Warren (Quigley 58), Caves, O’Donnell (Voisey 40), Lyons, Spivey (Stott 40), Mason, Maltman (Harper 65), Pennycock. Unused replacements: Quigley, Thomas, Adams.

Referee: M Tutty (RFU).