The Leeds Carnegie A team were left to rue an error-strewn display on Monday night as they lost out 28-6 to Newcastle Falcons at West Park Leeds.
Leeds won their opening game in the Guinness A League at Leicester and narrowly lost to Sale last week which led to high hopes for their first home game however their mistakes cost them dearly and they failed to put pressure on an attack minded Falcons outfit. There also spent 30 minutes of the game down to 14 men with consecutive sin binnings for Martin Schusterman and Andy Boyde either side of half time and Phil Nilsen binned towards the end.
Right from the start the Falcons showed their intention, a towering line out take from Peter Browne and a punishing rolling maul forcing the penalty from which fly half Gavin Beasley slotted the opening points.
Leeds drew level on eight minutes as opposite number James Brooks sent over a penalty from 35 metres out, and the home side took the lead on the half hour through a second Brooks penalty
However, almost straight from the restart the young Falcons scored a blistering try as fullback Alex Tait's scything counter-attack run saw the youngster break the line, setting up the ruck from which Visser was freed to touch down in the left corner for the first try of the night.
Beasley's touchline conversion attempt thumped the post before bouncing out, but there was not long to wait for the next try as Leeds were reduced to 14 men with Argentina international Martin Schusterman sin-binned for killing the ball.
With prop Williams making a rampaging run to get to within five metres of the right corner, the ball was worked left through the hands, Beasley's marvellous miss pass taking out three would-be defenders to send Visser in unopposed down the left hand side.
Beasley's touchline conversion sent the Falcons in 15-6 up at the break, and with two early penalties in the opening moments of the second half the result was all but secured. In fact, Leeds had conceded 13 points with Schusterman off the field and no sooner had the Argentinean returned to the action than Andy Boyde was shown the yellow card for taking out Eni Gesinde in the air from the restart.
The final score of the night came when replacement Ross Batty ran 30 metres to touch down, after a blindside snipe from scrum half Hall Chalton and sound link play from Shaw and Dillon freed the hooker to show a good turn of pace as he raced for the line, replacement fly half Rob Miller converting.
With the scoring done and dusted there was still time for late drama as both sides had a man dispatched to the sin bin, Falcons flanker Dawson for killing the ball and Leeds hooker Phil Nilsen for excessive use of the boot on the offending Falcon.
Commenting after the game Diccon Edwards said, "Unfortunately we produced too many unforced errors to build phases of play and really test Newcastle. All credit to them, they played some fantastic rugby and showed a real desire to win the game after we have had a bit of a hex on them in recent times. We need to move on from this performance as we have another tough test next Monday against Leicester at home. We need to show more pace and ambition with the ball. James Craig and Phil Nilsen worked hard throughout but overall it was a below par performance from our guys."
Leeds Carnegie:
Pens: Brooks 2
Falcons Development XV:
Tries: Visser 2, Batty
Cons: Beasley, Miller
Pens: Beasley 3
Leeds Carnegie: 15 Jon Goodridge, 14 Scott Armstrong, 13 Tom Rock, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 John Holtby, 10 James Brooks, 9 Mike Aspinall, 1 Michael Cusack, 2 Phil Nilsen, 3 Adam Hopcroft, 4 James Craig, 5 Rod Turner, 6 Andy Boyde, 7 Martin Schusterman, 8 Max Lewis.
Replacements: Chad Thorne, Scott Freer, Gareth Williams, Mark Anderson, Dan White, Luke Gray, G Jones.
Falcons Development XV: Alex Tait, 14 Joe Shaw (captain), 13 Tom Dillon, 12 Adam Dehaty, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Gavin Beasley, 9 Hall Charlton, 1 Johnny Williams, 2 Rob Vickers, 3 Micky Ward, 4 Stuart Walker, 5 Peter Browne, 6 Eni Gesinde, 7 Phil Dawson, 8 Ed Williamson.
Replacements: Robbie Kalbraier, Ross Batty, Iain Moody, Grant Beasley, Ross Samson, Rob Miller, Rob McDermott.