Leeds Carnegie Blown Away by Surrey

Joseph Fitzpatrick

Monday night's game away to Surrey Storm, a distinguished member of Superleague's version of the 'big four', was never likely to end well for Leeds Carnegie, but their 77-59 loss may have come at a very expensive cost.

Carnegie will now be without goal shooter and vice captain, Joanne Walker, for at least six weeks after she tore ankle ligaments, despairingly in the final 30 seconds of the game. Leeds centre Natalie Panagarry also looks set to miss several weeks because of a prior foot injury, which scans have revealed to be worse than originally thought.

Both losses are made more crushing by their timing, Carnegie not only have a crucial home game against Superleague rivals Celtic Dragons on Saturday, but also a British Universities Championship semi-final in Hertfordshire on Wednesday.

If this wasn't bad enough, in a cruel twist of fate both players were due to train with the England team next week, in response to their impressive form.

Despite tallying their second highest score of the season, Leeds were consistently beaten every quarter by an impressive Surrey team. Leeds had no answer for Surrey's England shooter Rachel Dunn who scored a record 60 goals from 66 attempts.

After the game Carnegie coach Lisa Ferneyhough gave her opinion of team's defensive display: "It was an attacking game tonight, it was a shooting game and unfortunately our defence decided to stay at home." She said, "We just couldn't bring any turnover whatsoever. Rachel [Dunn] was formidable but we didn't do anything to make that otherwise."