Leeds keep the dream alive

Wilkinson: Early try

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Lee Blackett scored the fastest try in Guinness Premiership history as Leeds Carnegie defied the odds to beat Newcastle Falcons 16-15 at Headingley on Friday night.

The centre scored took just eight seconds to breach the visitors' defence, without a Newcastle player touching the ball, to break Tom Voyce's record of nine seconds for Wasps against Harlequins in November, 2004.

Alberto Di Bernardi kicked 11 points and despite Carl Hayman's late converted try for Newcastle, amidst snowy gales in West Yorkshire, Leeds held on for the points.

With just five games of the regular season remaining they are still 10 points off Worcester in 11th, but have kept their hopes of survival alive at least.

Fireworks

Leeds made the perfect start to the match as Newcastle allowed Di Bernardo's kick off to bounce, which it did extravagantly, and the ball broke for Blackett to race in for the simplest of tries. Di Bernardo kicked the conversion, but missed a penalty to really hammer home the advantage three minutes later.

Instead it was Jonny Wilkinson that struck next after a sustained period of pressure from the Newcastle forwards. Leeds showed real grit in defending their line, but after the pack had done their worst Wilkinson span through an Apolosi Satala tackle to reduce the deficit to two points.

Toby Flood mishandled just moments later as the Falcons threw away a second clear try-scoring opportunity. But the visitors went 8-7 ahead through Wilkinson's penalty 19 minutes in after Newcastle had forced Leeds to collapse their scrum despite having the feed.

Di Bernardo kicked two more penalties before the interval though and Leeds went in 13-8 up, but with the wind in their face to look forward to in the second half.

Battle

Leeds braved the elements superbly after the interval though and, but for Wilkinson's try-saving tackle on Tom Biggs, would have gone over for another early try soon after the restart.

Di Bernardo did kick Leeds into an eight-point lead inside 50 minutes though after props Mike MacDonald and Tommy McGee had almost combined for a try.

As the snow started to come down an hour into the match, the team in white enjoyed their best period of the match as the forwards again ground the opposition pack down. Hayman it was who went over after a succession of energy-sapping tries for the visitors and Wilkinson converted to make it 16-15 in favour of Leeds.

But as they had done in the first half Newcastle's sloppy handling and poor decision-making proved costly as the home side put in an incredible, and more importantly disciplined, display in defence.

And against all the odds, it was Leeds that were the team pushing hardest for the opposition line at the end, holding on for a valuable one-point victory that could yet save their season.