Merit League Champion's

Saturday 14th March 2015

LEEK RFC 3rd XV 23 vs 15 HANDFORD RFC 2nd XV

On Saturday LEEK 3rd XV entertained their nearest challengers to the merit league title, HANDFORD 2's in what eventually turned out to be a title winning performance by Leek.
Before the game commenced Capt' Hicks warned of complacency amongst his team and HANDFORD proved him right. Within the first twenty minutes Hanford had taken a 0-12 lead using their bigger forwards to greater effect. However with composure and hard work Leek pulled the score back to 7-12 when leeks man of the match Ryan Day showed true strength and guile to crash over the line under the posts for an easy conversion for fly half Jack Whitfield who ran Day close for the MoM.
With Handford's big forwards not really gaining any further ground after determined defending by Leek, their next opportunity for points came from a penalty for not rolling away and so opted to convert taking the score to 7-15 . It was important that Leek did not panic and with a penalty awarded chose to kick for the points and Whitfield duly obliged. At halftime 10-15 With Leek having the slight advantage of the slope for the 2nd half they refused to rush things and some composed play enable Day to power his way through attempted tackles to crash over the line again giving Whitfield another easy conversion to take Leek into a 17-15 lead.
With the lead now theirs any opportunity to increase the lead by penalty points and the confidence in fly half Whitfield's kicking, two more penalties awarded gave Leek a 23 -15 final score, enabling them to clinch the Stafforshire merit division 2 title with 2 games to go.
Capt' Hicks said later,
" To come from behind at home to our nearest challengers showed tremendous composure under pressure. The understanding of ALL the players including those that never got to play today shows great team camaraderie and support. It has been an honour to be their captain".
LEEK 3rd XV , staffs merit div 2 winners.

Report Author:
Rob Hicks