New faces will make Leeds stronger - Davies

Leeds director of rugby Phil Davies last night revealed the Tykes have made several new signings who should fill the void left by Braam van Straaten’s departure at the end of the season.

Springbok international van Straaten is leaving Headingley for Leeds’ Zurich Premiership rivals Sale Sharks, agreeing a two-year deal which will see him feature as cover for the injured Charlie Hodgson.

The Tykes had offered the South African points machine an extension on his current deal but were not prepared to improve upon the terms of his contract, prompting him to seek employment across the Pennines at Heywood Road.

Van Straaten’s pinpoint goal-kicking will certainly be a major loss to the Tykes – his match-winning credentials were on full display last night when he landed an 84th minute conversion to clinch a dramatic 23-22 victory over Harlequins.

But Davies’ vision for Leeds meant that van Straaten’s salary demands could not be met, with the Tykes chief instead choosing to strengthen his squad with several as-yet unnamed players.

“Braam is the best goalkicker in the world but we’ve got to improve the quality of our squad generally. We have tried to do that by signing some international players who we will be announcing in the coming weeks,” said Davies.

“We will have a stronger group of players next year. Sometimes you have got to look at the bigger picture – I want us to expand our game and become a lot more fluent as a team.

“To do that we need a greater depth of quality at the club. That costs so we have to distribute the salary cap a little more evenly.”

Van Straaten’s limitations as an attacking player are hardly a secret but he rarely fails with the boot and last night’s pressure kick against Quins was taylor-made for the burley centre.

Diego Albanese’s 83rd minute try – his first for the club – took Leeds to within one point of the visitors and van Straaten made the conversion look easy, slotting it straight between the uprights.

Defeat was desperately unlucky on Quins – they had led by six points after an inspired kicking display from Paul Burke, who did not miss a single shot at goal all night and even found time for a cheeky drop goal.

The Irishman had continued the fightback begun by Dan Luger’s blistering 41st minute solo try, keeping the scoreboard ticking over as Quins looked set to record only their second away victory in two years.

But Albanese popped up late on to cross, scoring Leeds’ second try after Chris Hall had touched down for the first, and van Straaten did the rest.

Despite the result, Quins chief executive Mark Evans took some consolation from his side’s performance and praised the skill levels of both teams.

“It probably wasn’t a very exciting game from a spectator point of view, apart from the end obviously, but as a coach I thought it was a very sound game technically,” he said.

“We didn’t make many mistakes, the quality of the goalkicking was very good all night, there were three good tries and it was a war zone in the tackle area - always enjoyable for the purist. It was like high-speed chess.

“To say it was disappointing to lose it in the last two minutes is to understate it hugely but we played well away from home and did enough to win it.”