Leos travelled to mallorie park with a number of enforced changes due to some of the squad attending a stag do in Las Vegas,Fffordey was on long term babysitting duties and Monty on building duties.

Stu Norton took the 15 shirt John Sleight and Neal Liu were the centre partnership, Ryan Patel made his debut on the wing and Mark Winter moved to fly half.

In the pack John Leatham came in at prop to play his third first team game, Gareth Chester returned to the second row and Nick Burdon played his second first team game of the campaign.

Despite the revised line up the reality was the the side played extremely well with the pack more than holding its own against an experienced ripon front row.Lenny lane won all our own line our ball, James Forton led the side from the front with great passion and Ed Connell was a solid cornerstone of the front row.

Following good forward pressure Leos took the lead with a try on 7 minutes when Roger Wood fed the ball out wide which went quickly through the hands of Neal liu and Stuart Baker to John Sleight who scored a good try out wide.Mark Winter added the conversion.

Leos had the better of the first half but the Ripon defence was solid and Leos went into the half time break with a 7-0 advantage.

Will Levitt who again showed up well in the loose suffered an arm injury and was replaced by Martin McIntosh who had to take up a more unaccustomed role in the back row.

With the elements in ripons favour the home side began to take more territorial advantage and following some good play by their backs the ball was fed out to their number 11 who squeezed th at the corner.Ripon 5 Leos 7

Leos then went back on the offensive and put some concerted pressure on the home side and were rewarded with a penalty on 60 minutes duly converted by Mark Winter following a home player killing the ball.

The final 20 minutes saw the game played out in the middle of the park but it then looked as if Leos had secured victory when a good break by winter had Neal Liu on his shoulder who ran 40 metres to the line to be ankle tapped just short and the ripon side were able to clear their line.

The ripon side mounted a final charge and on 75 minutes the ref a judged acting skipper James Forton had killed the ball illegally and showed him a yellow card.

Leos pushed Macca up to hooker and the 7 men pack held the home side, but the ref judged there was one minute left on the clock. The ripon pack rummaged forward and in the pile up the ref gave a try.

The scorers were tied at 10-10 and it was all on the ripon number 10 who coolly slotted the conversion to give the home side a surprising 12-10 victory to the delight of the home supporters.

Leos can be proud of their efforts and whilst this was a bitter pill to swallow having been in control of the game for long periods, coaches greenwood and Worrall will have many positives to work on for next week's derby at moortown.
Leos Try Sleight Conversion Winter Penalty Winter
Leos:Norton,Baker,Liu Sleight Patel, Winter Wodds,Connell,Forton,Leatham,Debenham,Chesters,Burden,
Lane,Levitt,McIntosh

Leos RUFC

Match details

Match date

Kickoff

Competition

Team Sponsors

Login