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Magnificent display of full-backery |
Two injury hit sides went into battle in the biggest derby in Rugby League and served up a beauty. Kicking off the Millennium Magic weekend, the teams shrugged off their injury concerns and served up a tight tussle - the sort you expect in a derby. Ultimately, it would hinge on a refereeing decision late on, but what preceded that had everyone guessing.
Here's what happened |
It started well for our bitter cross-town rivals. They may be missing some key players, but there are few better operators in Super League than Scott Hill and it was he who took control early on, chipping to Andy Smith's corner in the third minute and the ex-Bradford man scored in the corner. Captain Rob Purdham banged over a ripper from the sideline for an early 6-0 lead. And five minutes later it was Hill from the base of the scrum who spread it in the opposite direction to send Jon Wells around the outside of the defence to score on the opposite side. Purdham's second goal was similarly spectacular and the Dragons fans began to fear the worst at 12-0.
Slowly but surely, the Dragons pack began to get a foothold in the game and eventually get some semblance of control and dominance. And from the back of that came a double salvo by way of riposte to the early Quins scores. In the 19th minute, a superb handling move up the middle of the park. Clint Greenshields was involved twice and finished it off by the side of the posts for a scintillating score which Thomas Bosc goaled. Greenshields then turned provider four minutes later. His offload sent Stacey Jones in and Bosc's goal levelled us up.
The game ebbed and flowed, but it would be the London side that went into the break leading. After giving a penalty away, the Dragons were camped on their own line and Chad Randall nicked one from dummy-half close to the line eight minutes from half-time. Purdham again goaled and with no further scoring, the opening stanza ended 18-12 to Harlequins.
The second half took a while to get going, but when it did, it did so in grand fashion. Casey McGuire was having one of his more subdued games, but his bomb to the corner after 10 minutes was swooped on by Sergeant Wilson who flew highest of all to pinch it. Bosc levelled us up at 18-18 with the conversion. Quins came straight back, but a kick on the last was charged down by Justin Murphy and hacked on before the cover got back to him. The defence was still coming back onside when Jones profited two tackles later and jinked in for his second of the match. Bosc was again on target for 24-18. And on 23 minutes, the triple blast was concluded as Andrew Bentley did to Quins what Randall had done to the Dragons late in the first half, pinching one from dummy half. Perhaps crucially, Bosc couldn't land the goal, but at 28-18 it looked fairly comfortable.
So when Adam Mogg dropped a doozy and Harlequins spread it wide for Paul Sykes to score, there still wasn't wild panic in the Dragons ranks, even when Purdham added yet another goal to pull it back to a 4-point gap. But we reckoned wrong. With five minutes remaining, a frankly awful decision from Phil Bentham ruled a knock-on against the Dragons and Randall got across three tackles later as the Dragons defence still seemed to be confused with the decision. Purdham continued his splendid kicking form continued to put Quins back in front. And another shocking decision ruling a ball-steal when it looked all ends up a knock-on saw Purdham kick a penalty to complete the scoring at 32-28 to the Londoners. |
Crucial calls from our old friend |
This was desperately disappointing. Without the benefit of replays, the decisions late on looked awful, but even so, the Dragons should be able to close a game out from a winning position such as they were in for most of the second half. They should have the experience to be able to so that nowadays. But for a game that wasn't perhaps top of everybody's list of 'must-see' matches across the weekend, it got the neutrals involved and on the edge of their seats. And there were some stand-outs who score themselves some player of the season points. Stacey Jones gets one. He's in a rich vein of form and his two tries sealed another impressive display. Clint Greenshields was magnificent at the back. His one-on-one defence is as good as anybody else in the league and chimed in with a try and an offload to set up another one. But the sang-et-or.net man of the match, and scoring three points, was Cyrille Gossard. He was superb in defence and his offload game kept the Dragons going forward. To play like he did just two weeks from coming back after broken ribs was absolutely top drawer.
Work must be done on closing games out. It was a problem last year that we shouldn't have this time. If we can do that, then we may yet square this four-match series with our bitter neighbours. They have won the battle. The war is not yet done.
MATCH FACTS
DRAGONS 28-32 HARLEQUINS
| | DRAGONS | T | G | DG | | LEEDS | T | G | DG |
| 1 | Greenshields | 1 | | | 16 | Melling | | | |
| 2 | Murphy | | | | 2 | Wells | 1 | | |
| 3 | Wilson | 1 | | | 3 | Sykes | 1 | | |
| 4 | Mogg | | | | 4 | T Smith | | | |
| 18 | Duport | | | | 24 | A Smith | 1 | | |
| 14 | Bosc | | 4 | | 7 | Orr | | | |
| 7 | Jones | 2 | | | 1 | McLinden | | | |
| 19 | Chan | | | | 8 | Temata | | | |
| 26 | Quigley | | | | 9 | Randall | 2 | | |
| 24 | Casty | | | | 10 | Heckenberg | | | |
| 28 | A Bentley | 1 | | | 13 | Purdham | | 6 | |
| 17 | Gossard | | | | 12 | Hopkins | | | |
| 21 | Touxagas | | | | 6 | Hill | | | |
| 8 | Ferriol | | | | 14 | Rinaldi | | | |
| 6 | McGuire | | | | 20 | Grayshon | | | |
| 10 | Guisset | | | | 27 | Burgess | | | |
| 16 | Teixido | | | | 26 | Walsh | | | |
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