Return to lower level likely after Leeds lose to Falcons

Defeat last night to the only team within reach was a crushing blow for the Yorkshire club, who are circling the Premiership drain.

One win all season is a poor return by any team’s standards, and if they extricate themselves from this hole – they trail Newcastle by seven points but have little momentum – it will go down as a better accomplishment than last year’s great escape.

It can still be achieved, despite this near fatal blow. A three-week spell starting on March 25 and involving away games at Sale and Newcastle, with a home date with Exeter sandwiched in between, is their last chance.

But on this evidence, a return to the Championship, and trips to Welsh, Cornish Pirates and Nottingham, beckons.

If Leeds cannot raise themselves against their biggest relegation rivals, cannot go that extra yard when the tryline is in sight, then there is little wonder they are in such a predicament.

Chief executive Gary Hetherington described the decision to dispense of the services of director of rugby Andy Key in the wake of a run of picking up points in three successive games as a ‘judgment call’.

But as the Falcons established an 11-0 half-time lead, taking Leeds’s post-Key era scoreline to 0-50, that is increasingly looking like an error in judgment.

Newcastle deserve credit. Their form coming into such an important match had been wretched, yet they looked neat in possession and tackled fiercely, while always comfortable in the knowledge that Leeds would press the self-destruct button on their promising attacks, as was the case with so many home handling errors.

Neil Back’s side were their own worst enemy in the scrum, conceding three penalties gobbled up by Jimmy Gopperth, the Premiership’s leading points scorer last season who is not one to look gift horses in the mouth. Gopperth scored 12 points in total.

To add to Leeds’s disappointment, a crowd of 5,110 for such a big game when they needed the support, was their second lowest of the season.

They had injuries and international absentees, and their pre-match preparations were further affected when Lee Blackett failed a late fitness test, with Pete Wackett coming in on the wing.

Their build-up had not been helped either by the sad news of James Tinknell, who had been badly hurt in a road traffic accident last Monday. Encouragingly, word reached the team on the morning of the game that the former Wharfedale winger, though still in intensive care, was making steady progress.

And for all the heartache that was to befall them, Leeds did make a purposeful start, with the ball zipping through hands in a series of phases.

Yet it was the Falcons who soared into the lead with a try out of nothing.

A soft penalty conceded in opposition territory allowed Gopperth to kick to touch and after Tim Swinson won the lineout, Micky Young swiftly moved the ball through Jon Golding and Luke Fielden, the latter releasing Ally Hogg who charged in from 15 yards despite a late tackle from Thomas.

Gopperth missed the conversion, but a telling blow had been struck.

Leeds looked shell-shocked, and only a well-timed catch and midfield burst from Michael Stephenson woke them from their slumber.

Two promising attacks then floundered through bad handling, firstly when Kearnan Myall dropped the ball and then, after an offensive lineout, Phil Nilsen had the ball ripped from his possession by Luke Eves.

Leeds had dominated possession but Newcastle were quick on the counter and but for a covering Wackett tackle on Alex Tait after an intelligent cross-field kick from Gopperth had split the defence, it would have been more.

Lachlan Mackay was the designated fly-half, but often it was Thomas in the role of first receiver, and the two dove-tailed neatly for Mackay to threaten the line in the left corner but he was held up short.

Warren Fury then carelessly threw the ball at Falcons captain James Hudson, though he had few support runners, before Leeds needlessly offered Gopperth two kicks at goal for a scrum infringement and then crossing.

The New Zealander accepted both, the latter just dropping over the posts from 50 metres.

Gopperth then stretched the lead further after the restart, punishing yet more scrum indiscipline with two penalties.

Stephenson and Mackay burst into the opposition 22 to get a frustrated Headingley Carnegie crowd to their feet, but it was the same old story from the recycle, with Mike MacDonald the guilty party to drop the ball.

By this time Falcons hooker Matt Thompson had been sin-binned, and Back had thrown Matty Jarvis and Luther Burrell into the fray.

Leeds began to make serious in-roads and scored their first Premiership points for nearly 160 minutes when 22-year-old replacement hooker Scott Freer – in a positive nod to the strength of Leeds’s Academy – burrowed over from the back of a maul after an attacking lineout. Jarvis could not convert from the touchline.

Jeremy Manning’s late try in the corner added insult to injury and had home fans pouring out of the stadium, leafing through their A-Z’s.

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Leeds Carnegie: Thomas (Jarvis 60), Wackett, Fa’afili, Barrow (Burrell 60), Stephenson, Mackay, Fury (Mathie 52); MacDonald (Hardy 64), Nilsen (Freer 64), Swainston (Denman 52), Craig (Hohneck 44), Wentzel, Myall, Browne, To’oala (Paul 64).

Newcastle Falcons: Manning, Fielden, Eves, Fitzpatrick (Tu’Ipulotu 64), Tait, Gopperth, Young (Charlton 73); Golding (Shiells 75), Thompson, Brookes, Hudson, ven der Heijden, Swinson (Vickers 58), Welch, Hogg. Unused replacements: Hall, Wilson, Pennycook, Catterick.

Referee: D Richards (RFU).

Scorers: Leeds – try: Freer. Newcastle – tries: Hogg, Manning; pens: Gopperth 4.