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Yet another tight climax, and yet again Blackheath finding themselves on the wrong end of the final scoreline.
In the 76th minute, Steve Leonard had peeled off the side of a maul to crash over the goal-line, giving the Club the lead for the first time in the contest, Sam Evans striking a decent conversion to extend the advantage to three points.
However, Leeds fly-half Kieran Davies was soon breaking attempted tackles through the Club’s midfield to take play back into opposition territory.
Despite winning a kickable penalty to earn his side a draw, Tykes skipper Will Smith directed his chief playmaker to send the ball to the corner, and as Leeds kept the ball alive through numerous phases, and sucked in numbers, space opened up for Davies himself to cross for the decisive score.
In many ways though, Blackheath lost this game in the first period.
With rain sweeping in on a stiff breeze, the opening was punctuated by errors, but with Nick Foster in the sin bin in the 23rd minute for a deliberate knock on, Leeds were quick to exploit the extra space, first sending left-wing Harry Jukes across, before centre Ben Dixon also went over for a 10-0 lead on the half-hour.
Freddie Gabbitass responded with a penalty, and the Club fly-half’s hoof forward on 38 minutes bounced unkindly for the Leeds defence allowing Foster to announce his re-appearance by grounding for an opportunistic try.
Nevertheless, Blackheath’s good fortune was short-lived as a clumsy penalty from the re-start handed Leeds the opportunity for tight-head Xavier Valentine to drive over, and with Davies now finding his range with the conversion, Blackheath were left to play catch-up at 17-8 at the break.
And catch up they did – eventually! A nice diagonal run and off-load from Alex Brown saw Daniel Dass dive over on 47 minutes, only for the nine-point margin to be restored as Tykes’ blind-side Trystan Lloyd bulldozed across, following a series of penalties as Blackheath continually went off their feet.
However, on 66 minutes, Ed Taylor received lineout ball for the Club pack to pick and drive their way infield, Nathan Morris grounding next to the uprights, and although Gabbitass’ conversion was charged down, and two golden lineout chances were blown, Taylor took clean ball on a third throw for Leonard’s try with just four minutes to spare.
Too many though for Blackheath to hold their nerve.
Next Saturday Blackheath return to home soil for the visit of Taunton, with an earlier kick-off time at Well Hall of 2.30 pm
Leeds Tykes
Tries: Dukes 23, Dixon 30, Valentine 39, Lloyd 61, Davies 79
Conv: Davies 39
Blackheath
Tries: Foster 38, Dass 47, Morris 66, Leonard 76
Conv: Evans 76
Pens: Gabbitass 37
Blackheath Team
15 . Howard Packman
14 . Jake Lloyd
13 . Alex Brown
12 . George Spencer
11 . Nick Foster
10 . Freddie Gabbitass
9 . Ollie Claxton
1 . Matt Meek
2 . Harry Fry
3 . Andrew Boye
4 . Tom Stradwick
5 . Ed Taylor (Capt)
6 . Dom McGeekie
7 . Freddie Owen
8 . Steve Leonard
16 . Nathan Morris
17 . Tom Williams
18 . Daniel Dass
19 . Dan Hiscocks
20 . Sam Evans
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