Leeds Tykes and Sheffield RUFC title battle gets fresh twist under Friday night lights

The two Yorkshire sides are locked on 60 points at the top of the fourth tier alongside Cheshire side Lymm. They have each won 12 games, lost once and claimed 12 bonus points, and when they met in October they were separated by just a point, Leeds prevailing 13-12.

Now, for the final game before Christmas, both clubs have brought their fixture forward from Saturday afternoon to Friday evening.

“I didn’t realise they’d done it as well,” laughed Jake Brady, the Leeds Tykes player and general manager, when informed by The Yorkshire Post that Sheffield’s local derby with Sheffield Tigers will kick-off at 7pm tonight, an hour before Leeds host Otley at AMT Headingley Stadium.

News doesn’t travel as fast in the regionalised fourth tier as it does in the Premiership, or other sports for that matter, but don’t discount that as these Yorkshire derbies being any less important to the people involved.

“We’ll definitely be interested in that Sheffield result after our game,” said Brady.

“Tigers ran us close the other week and I think when they played Sheffield earlier in the season they gave them a good game so I’m half-expecting something to go wrong there.”

As Brady alluded to earlier in the week, though, Leeds will only go one better in this year’s title race as opposed to last year’s when they were pipped at the post by Rotherham Titans, if they concentrate on taking care of their own business.

That means giving their full attention to Otley, a team that plays just a couple of miles up the road from their traditional Sycamores home in Bramhope.

The joke is that Leeds fly-half Kieran Davies can kick a ball from the Sycamores to Otley’s Cross Green, so close are the two venues, yet for the renewal of rivalries for these two long-standing West Yorkshire foes, Leeds have opted to play the game back at Headingley, a ground they graced as a Premiership team over a decade ago.

“It is special, it’s good to have Leeds Tykes rugby union back at the stadium and to have Otley there as well,” said Brady.

“We’ve moved it to Friday so hopefully lots of people are interested in the game.

“Wharfedale and Harrogate, for instance, are playing the following day so they might think we’ll come up and watch Leeds-Otley at the stadium.

“We couldn’t have more of a local derby, they’re only a couple of miles away from us now.

“Roll down the hill from our ground and you’ll be at Otley’s Cross Green.

"So it’s nice to welcome them back to the big stadium.

“They’re another team around that relegation mix and they’ll be well up for it.”

By coincidence, Sheffield have moved their Steel City derby to Friday night to make the most of the new floodlights they have had installed at their Abbeydale Sports Club ground.

“It creates a new atmosphere,” said their director of rugby, Anthony Posa.

“The club has invested in the facilities and it just brings a different aspect to what’s already a great game.”

Where Leeds are rebounding after crashing through the divisions and bottoming out in the fourth tier, being top of National Two North is the highest Sheffield have ever risen up the pyramid. These are heady days for a Sheffield club that has former Premiership players Dom Parsons and Ryan Burrows in its ranks.

Posa has said he wants his team to savour every moment of their time in the spotlight, mindful of the change in mindset required among his players now they are the team to catch.

And he knows full well that Sheffield Tigers will like nothing more than to knock their neighbours down a peg or two.

“League position means nothing in a derby,” said Posa, whose team sit 10 places and 35 points better off than their city rivals.

“Tigers are having the opposite season to us, they’re struggling, I don’t know why because they’ve got the talent and we’re very, very wary of them.”