Match Report | Sheffield Eagles Women Red 6-30 Leigh Leopards
16/07/2024
By Barry Wood
The Sheffield Eagles Women Red team played unbeaten Championship leaders Leigh Leopards Ladies in this scheduled round 12 home fixture at the Hallam Sports Park, having lost to their opponents away 14-42 at the end of April.
Things did not start well for the Eagles from the kick off. A penalty for high contact invited Leigh 10m into the Eagles half. In three plays Leigh were 5m from the posts. A shift right brought about a gang tackle on the Leigh right centre Melvin, but the tacklers lost balance falling beyond the tackled player while the others retreated to the try line wide of the ruck and leaving no markers. Melvin was up first to make a quick play the ball, and dummy half Howard shot through the hole to score barely opposed in the 2nd minute. Melvin converted for 0-6.
The Eagles gained possession after a Leigh knock-on from the kick off. They exerted pressure on the Leigh line, but even with the help of a penalty they couldn’t quite get a score, surrendering the ball back after line speed pressure forced an error. Seven minutes later after defusing a Leigh attack down the Eagles right edge, the Eagles committed an error on the second play from the scrum, inviting Leigh to have another go from 20m out. Five plays were tried back and forth across the park, then a pass tempted an intercept attempt which failed as usual in traffic, granting Leigh another set of six 19m out in front of the posts. Leigh tried going right again but again were stopped, but this time a two pass play to the left back to the middle put the ball into the hands of prop McCosh coming back against the grain to crash over by the side of the right post in the 14th minute. Melvin converted for 0-12.
Four minutes later disaster struck. Possibly as a result of the disappointment at falling behind in the game, a long offload pass was thrown out to the left wing. Contrary to experience against other sides Leigh execute their line speed pressure across both sides of the ruck using the whole team. As a result the Leigh right winger was full in the face of the Eagles left winger. The ball was duly intercepted and offloaded immediately inside to Melvin on the Eagles 30m line. Melvin sprinted away, then threaded a pass between two Eagles chasers inside to second rower Cobain, who dived in 15m from the corner flag in the 18th minute. Melvin converted again for 0-18.
The next twenty minutes turned into the traditional “arm wrestle”. Attacks from each side came to nought either through unforced errors or more often just sheer brutal defence forcing handovers and scrums. Eventually with the help of a penalty for high contact, the Eagles managed to make another raid into Leigh territory. On play four a storming drive from England got play to within 10m of the Leigh line and earned another penalty for high contact. Prop Frederick-Maynard then got to 1m away in front of the posts. The next play went to Auger who drove in on the left, managing to spin away in contact and dive over 5m to the left of the posts in the 39th minute. Thomas converted for 6-18 and the half time whistle.
Half-time: Sheffield Eagles Women 6 – 18 Leigh Leopards Ladies
Battle recommenced but now in steady rain with both teams trying to play expansive rugby. The completion rates of both sides fell somewhat as the weather and brutal defence had their effect, plus for the Eagles maybe a tendency to try and chase the game too soon, which brought a series of unforced errors and repeated defensive pressure. Eventually that pressure told. On receiving the ball off an Eagles last tackle kick, Leigh punched their way from their 26m mark to 20m from the Eagles line in five plays.
The sixth play shifted the ball left across the pitch into the hands of second rower Morris, duly enveloped in turn by the arms of Fisher, the ball dropping from the grasp of Morris forward to the floor. A knock-on on the sixth tackle and handover to the Eagles, surely. Not so! From the blindside the referee adjudicated that the ball had been batted down by Fisher and awarded another six tackles to Leigh, the loose ball having been picked up by the Leigh scrum-half, who had been promptly tackled to ground. At this point possibly fatigue could have played its part. Instead of an instant reaction to get on the try line quickly and face up across the park to defend another six, a collective loss of concentration and lethargy befell the Eagles defence. Every Eagles defender from the ruck towards the posts and beyond switched off, retreating slowly with backs turned. Meanwhile Leigh spotted this with a ball inside into the hands of quick and powerful second rower Cobain, who crabbed across to easily force away over under the posts against belated resistance in the 62nd minute. Melvin converted easily to push the score out to 6-24.
Despite this setback the Eagles did not surrender and the game continued in much the same vein as before, but with the Eagles time after time being their own worst enemies in their own half, then having to defend hard to recover each situation.
Finally one error too many caught up when an impossible offload attempt gave a scrum away on the Eagles 40m line. Leigh focussed three plays on their right, then the fourth play went out the back and into the hands of Leigh left centre Young.
A show and go split the tired Eagles edge, a swerve and speed escaped the despairing grasp of the cover, and Young was over 7m in from the corner flag in the 79th minute for the last play of the game. Melvin converted again to blow out the score to 6-30 and the final whistle.
Full-time: Sheffield Eagles Women 6 – 30 Leigh Leopards Ladies
Eagles Tries: Auger
Goals: Thomas (1/1)
Leigh Tries: Howard, McCosh, Cobain(2), Young
Goals: Melvin (5/5)
In conclusion a hard game in which the Eagles without four regular players never gave up against the Championship favourites. However the Eagles were on many occasions their own worst enemies when it came to ball security, but that should not diminish the value of the improvement in defence, especially on the edges. Leigh only created three tries on an edge, and one of those in the first half was due more to the Eagles gifting an interception. In the away encounter in April the Eagles shipped nine tries down their edges when Leigh fielded much the same team as this fixture. You have to take that as a significantly positive improvement.
The coaches’ award had to go to Lisa Parker in recognition of yet another high work rate effort. The captain’s choice went to substitute Katie England, whose introduction into play steadied the ship and upped the tempo when things were going poorly.
