Visits to Headingley are no longer for the fainthearted. After skinning Leicester on the opening weekend, Leeds claimed another scalp yesterday which lifted them into third place.
London Irish self-destructed in a flurry of basic errors and a rash of ill-discipline and were duly punished by the boot of Braam van Straaten. But they were driven into those mistakes by constant pressure in every area from a Leeds side who look infinitely more complete than last season's model.
The only dull note was when Van Straaten ended the match by kicking the last penalty into touch rather than going for goal from five metres on his own side of the halfway line.
By then he shared with Thierry Lacroix, Luke Smith, Alex King and Simon Mannix the record of nine penalty kicks in a Premiership match and, with two conversions as well, he was a single point behind the Premiership individual points record of 32 for a single game, set by the Exiles' Niall Woods in April 1998.
"I wanted to get the game over," said the Springbok. "Irish had come at us all afternoon, they kept the ball very well and were a tough side."
Among Van Straaten's 11 successful kicks at goal was one massive angled penalty from around 56 metres - his second kick of the match after 14 minutes - which he estimated was the longest kick of his career at sea level, topped only by a 59-metre effort at altitude.
"I didn't feel I was ever going to miss," he added. "Kicking is my job and I've done it all my life. This week I've been working on my angles, and I've been striking it sweetly."
Van Straaten's kicking - and his massive tackle to turn over the Irish No8 Declan Danaher - capped a rock-solid all-round Leeds performance, which earned praise from the London Irish director of rugby Conor O'Shea. He said: "Gordon Ross controlled the game superbly, and kicked the ball behind us, the pack were very physical, big and well drilled, they have a goalkicker to rival any in world rugby, and a back three to die for."
If Dan Scarbrough had his moments in the week he was named in Clive Woodward's training squad, and Ross's kicking constantly pegged the Exiles back, the new Argentinian signing Diego Albanese was the pick of the backline. For Dan Hyde's 17th-minute try he provided an aerial take of Barry Everitt's up-and-under to win initial possession, then cropped up again to feed Scarbrough, who had Hyde on his shoulder.
The little Puma then produced the finest moment of the 80 minutes just before injury-time. He acted scrum-half at a ruck on the Irish 22, sold an expansive dummy to break the line then bamboozled Paul Sackey and Michael Horak before popping the final pass to Ross for the try.
After finishing fourth and winning the Powergen Cup, in successive weeks, Irish have now lost to the two clubs - Leeds and Bath - who propped up the table last season. In attack they had a frenetic look while in defence they sorely missed the guiding influence of their player-coach Brendan Venter, whose return after a hamstring injury is still some time away.
Even the basics were often absent: their lineout was rusty, and the scrum creaked at key moments, most blatantly in a superb attacking position deep in the Leeds 22 with 12 minutes remaining and the score at 28-16. A try would have put them back in the match; instead Leeds turned the scrum and regained possession. As O'Shea said: "We're disappointed at our own discipline."
Ironically, while O'Shea's side are currently without a jersey sponsor, the Leeds public address system referred continually to a major Irish bank which, as their big match backer, appears to have made a canny investment.
Leeds: Scarbrough; Harder, Davies (Rock, 79), Van Straaten, Albanese; Ross, Dickens; Shelley (capt), Regan (Rawlinson, 80), Kerr, Murphy (Campbell, 69), Palmer, Mather, Hyde (Hogg, 69), Feaunati.
Tries: Hyde, Ross. Cons: Van Straaten 2. Pens: Van Straaten 9.
London Irish: Horak; Sackey, Bishop, Appleford, Rossouw; Everitt, Edwards (Barrett, 65); Worsley (Hatley, 47), Kirke (Flavin, 45), Hardwick (Halford, 45-65), Strudwick (capt), Casey, Cockle (Gustard, 56), Dawson, Danaher.
Tries: Horak. Cons: Everitt. Pens: Everitt 3.
Referee: R Goodliffe (Yorkshire).
