Leek RFC Ltd

Regional 2 North Midlands

After consecutive defeats in the league, sandwiched with a Staffs cup defeat at Walsall, it was back to winning ways for the Moorlanders on Saturday as they overcame a tough Melbourne side to claim a 5-point victory.

Leek made a few changes to the side this week with Rob McDermott moving to 10 and Will Midwinter to 12. Adam Varley was playing for the first time in 2 months as he took his place at 13. Sam Brereton and returning Jack Newton Taylor were on the wings with Joe Byrne at full back.

Skipper Ed Cheadle was joined by Joe Newton Taylor and Lee Williams in the front row with returning Luke Hardern starting for the first time at lock with Joel Booth. Reece Milner was at No.8 and George Hunt and Billy Kidd were on the flanks.

Bobby Cheadle, Sam Lloyd and Ollie Powell were on the bench.

The game was preceded by a minute’s applause in commemoration of Mick Whitehouse, a valued volunteer for many years and also to remember 3 recently passed rugby men from Leek; Arthur Hudson, Joe Clarke and Richard Downes who spanned playing rugby through the 1960s and 1970s.

Leek started the game well, retaining the ball and testing the visitor’s defence which held firm and it looked like this was going to be a tough, close contest. On 9 minutes, Leek was first to score when they worked the ball from right to left on the halfway with Adam Varley handing off a tackler before passing to Jack Newton Taylor. He evaded a couple of tackles to score in the left corner. Will Midwinter missed the difficult conversion, but Leek led early 5-0.

Soon after Leek was penalised for offside as the Derbyshire outfit responded with a strong attack and the flyhalf duly converted to reduce the score to 5-3 on 15 minutes.

Leek was back pressing again on 20 minutes, but the strong defence was keeping the home backs from making a clean break until Will Midwinter took the ball 35 metres out , centre field and sprinted for a gap, rounded the winger on the right and scored by the posts for a fantastic try. He converted his own score to lift Leek to 12-3. (See attached photo as Will goes in for the score)

Once again though, Leek was penalised for not rolling away soon after as Melbourne built their own position through some strong phases. Again, the fly half converted the penalty to keep the visitors in touch at 12-6.

Then on 30 minutes with Melbourne pressing deep in Leek’s 22 on the right, Joe Newton Taylor was yellow carded for a team penalty offence, as the pressure mounted. A Leek scrum under their own posts was only partially cleared and Melbourne worked a quick penalty left by their alert scrum half and the forwards crashed over for the try on the left. The conversion was good, and Melbourne took the lead on 34 minutes. 12-13.

The 14 men of Leek now needed to retain possession for the rest of the half and not allow the visitors another score, but the Moorlanders did more than this from a lineout on the left. A catch and drive caught Melbourne’s forwards off guard as the Leek pack drove 30 metres to the Melbourne goal line. Offending to stop the score, the referee awarded a penalty try to hand Leek the lead at 19-13 and with a minute to go before the break, Leek held on to go into the break knowing the 15th man was back on at the start of the 2nd half.

However, little prepared them for what happened on 50 minutes, when after a series of drives by Melbourne and Leek offences, Liam McDermott was yellow carded for holding on after the tackle. Melbourne went for the lineout, but Leek’s superb defence held the line until the ball sped out to the big centre. He was met by Rob McDermott and after a clash of heads, the referee red carded McDermott, leaving the Moorlanders temporarily with 13 men and permanently with 14 men.

Leek’s forwards had dominated the scrum and maul all game, so Melbourne’s attacking options came through the lineout and backs. From the penalty, Melbourne set up the ruck near the Leek line. The raids were repulsed more than 10 times as the heroic defence held out for over 6 minutes. Finally, the ball was worked to the right and with Leek’s defence outflanked the extra man scored in the right corner. The conversion was missed but with the score at 19-18 with a full 25 minutes to play, the odds favoured Melbourne with the extra man.

This is where Leek’s strong bench made a difference as coach Chris Mudd made the changes, rested a couple of players and used his exchanges well.

On 60 minutes, Leek won a scrum on their own 22 and from the messy possession, Ollie Powell won the ball and handed it to Will Midwinter. The young centre then went on a 60-metre run, weaving past the first tacklers and then sprinting round the outside backs before beating the full back for the line on the right. It was a scintillating run, topped off by his superb conversion to increase Leek’s lead to 26-18.

No-one noticed it was the bonus point 4th try as the odds still favoured an away win.

From the kick off, Jack Newton Taylor secured the ball and won a penalty. Joe Byrne then kicked a superb penalty kick down touch on the Melbourne 5 metre line. The catch was good and with the power of Booth and Hardern to the fore, the powerful maul sent skipper Ed Cheadle over the line for a massive team try. Midwinter converted to lift Leek to 33-18 with 10 minutes to go. (See attached photo)

Melbourne knew they had to throw caution to the wind now and prodded by the excellent scrum half they worked their way up field against a tiring but inspired Leek defence to score their 3rd try on the left. The conversion hit the post and came back, so at 33-23, Leek still had a 2-score advantage which they confirmed with a Midwinter penalty in the final minute to secure an unlikely 36-23 win.

Well done to all the players for producing such a great game and there won’t be much between these 2 sides all season. The win knocked Melbourne out of 2nd spot and moved Leek up to 3rd in a very tight group.

Leaders Long Eaton(31 points) lost their 100% record at Sutton Coldfield which moved the West Midlands side up to 2nd on 26 points, a point ahead of Leek on 25 with Oadby and Melbourne on 24 points.

This week, Leek travel to Moseley Oak for what is going to be a very tough match for the Moorlanders. The Oak have been quietly moving up the league and served notice with a strong 12-24 away win at Belgrave at the weekend.

Please try and get down to Birmingham and support the team. This is a 3pm KO with the following week’s home match v Matlock on November 5th reverting to a 2.15 KO.