Leeds Carnegie 24 Newcastle Falcons 19: Burrows has Leeds dreaming of play-off success
It was the game when this promising crop of home-grown players came of age, when thoughts of a return to the Premiership were transformed from fanciful to genuine.
And it had the drama to ensure it will live long in the memory, with Ryan Burrows charging over for a late try that swung the tie Leeds’s way and gave them a five-point lead to defend in the return semi-final leg on Sunday.
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Hide AdWhether they finish the job at Kingston Park or not, this was a defining win for Leeds, who have said all along that they are building towards a Premiership return.
The signs were there for all to see at an atmospheric, sun-drenched Headingley Carnegie yesterday, that those words are by no means hollow.
“If we didn’t believe it before, we certainly believe it now,” said head coach Diccon Edwards, after his side made a mockery of the league standings with a performance as wholehearted as any in the 21 years since the club formed out of the merger of Headingley and Roundhay.
Leeds finished 31 points behind Newcastle in the 22-game regular season, having lost nine games to the one suffered by the title favourites.
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Hide AdBut they won six games to storm into the play-offs while the Falcons spluttered over the line.
Dean Richards, Newcastle’s director of rugby, could feel aggrieved that his side have to go through the play-offs at all having been head and shoulders above everyone since September.
Such has been their confidence that they have been recruiting as if they would be playing in the top flight next season.
But in accepting defeat in the first leg, Richards applauded Leeds for the number of local lads who drove them to victory.
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Hide Ad“It’s a quality that I don’t think any other side in the Championship or the Premiership can boast,” said Richards, in reference to the fact that there was just one non-Briton in the home team.
Leeds have long maintained that they want to get back to the Premiership using the strength of their academy and the resources at their disposal in the White Rose county.
Edwards added: “It shows the strength of Yorkshire rugby at community level.
“And it’s great that we can put in a performance like that, one the county can be proud of.
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Hide Ad“Remember, we are only a young team. we are still at the development stage.
“But that performance (yesterday) was a squad effort, not just the team on the pitch, the whole squad.”
It was the forwards who laid the platform, and the boot of Joe Ford that kept the scoreboard ticking over.
But after a rousing first 20 minutes, Leeds’s tempo was dulled as Newcastle started to show their experience.
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Hide AdJimmy Gopperth, the Falcons’ experienced New Zealand fly-half, kicked them into a 19-13 lead before Ford levelled in stoppage time.
There was still time though for Burrows, the replacement back-row forward, to charge over and send the majority of the fans in the largest gate of the season at Headingley – 4,259 – into rapture.
“There was never any doubt it was a try,” said the Cleckheaton-born flanker, after his effort was referred to the video referee.
“That’s the best we’ve played over 80 minutes all season.
“That’s the one thing we’ve not been able to do, even in our recent run of good form.
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Hide Ad“Now we have to go up to Kingston Park and do it all again.”
Leeds should have every confidence they can do so.
They were more than a match for the mighty Falcons, edging them in the lineout and the scrum and showing greater urgency at the breakdown.
Stevie McColl, who is shortlisted for the Championship’s player of the year award, set them on their way in the 14th minute when he followed on the shoulder of the breaking Fred Burdon to score between the posts.
Ford converted and then kicked two penalties to Gopperth’s one as buoyant Leeds built a 10-point lead.
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Hide AdGopperth, though, showed what threat Newcastle posed when he ran nearly the length of the field, only to be pushed into touch by Josh Griffin. From the resulting lineout, Ali Hogg seized possession and scored.
Gopperth’s conversion and penalty levelled the scores at the break, and the tide appeared to have turned Newcastle’s way.
Although Edwards felt his side went into the second half “trying not to lose” the game, Newcastle did not do enough to win it.
In a territorial half, Gopperth and Ford kicked two penalties and missed one apiece before the impressive Carnegie pack laid one more foundation that allowed Burrows to scamper over.
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Hide Ad“The key thing from today is we have weathered the storm,” concluded Edwards.
“We have a five-point lead and we just have just got to keep focusing on the job we have to do.”
Leeds Carnegie: McColl, Goss, Griffin, Burdon, D Doherty, Ford, Hampson (J Doherty 62); Imiolek (Harris 52), Freer (Nilsen 74), Tussac (Currie 65), Green, Smith (Phillips 42), Baldwin, Walker (Burrows 56), Rowan. Unused replacement: Georgiou.
Newcastle Falcons: Tait, Cato, Powell, Tu’Ipulotu (Helleur 75), Shortland, Gopperth, Fury; Golding (Vickers 65), M Mayhew, Tomaszczyk (S Wilson 53), MacLeod, Hudson (Del Fava 58), M Wilson, Welch, Hogg. Unused replacements: R Mayhew, Pilgrim, Hodgson.
Referee: D Rose (RFU).