Leeds Carnegie 27 Bristol 33: Late rally gives hope ahead of potential reunion

Having been 20 points down at one stage in the second half, late tries from Jonah Holmes and Jacob Rowan secured Carnegie what could prove to be a crucial losing bonus point in the race to the Premiership.

Lowes said: “It was a poor start to the game, but it was a good finish for us. The start was an area that we talked about before the game and we needed to be really strong. Bristol are rapid and we just needed to hang in there and not give them the field position to cause us problems.

“We gave them too much easy field position early on and unfortunately they converted all of the opportunities that we gave them.

“We’ve got a good side here and a good bunch of lads and they never give up and we did finish the game strongly.”

The hosts, who are likely to need to beat Bristol in the play-offs if they want to win promotion this season, fell behind early.

After the Carnegie pack were penalised at the scrum, a powerful rolling maul from the resulting penalty saw Ross Rennie crash over and Nicky Robinson added the extras. But the home side cut the deficit when Glyn Hughes kicked a penalty from 30 metres after Bristol were penalised for holding on in the tackle.

The game continued to ebb and flow though and Leeds had the chance to get on the scoresheet again but Hughes pulled his penalty wide after Andy Robinson’s men were pinged for offside.

More indiscipline from Leeds at the breakdown once again allowed former Wasps fly-half Robinson to kick to the corner, and following a couple of phases deep in Carnegie territory, scrum-half Ricky Tipuna found space to race over for the second try.

Excellent defensive play has been a hallmark of Lowes’ reign at Headingley, but the Carnegie defence was found wanting when Robinson broke at pace and his offload found Nick Koster and he scored under the posts.

Bristol were then penalised for offside, and having missed his second penalty attempt, former Moseley man Hughes made no mistake with his third and the lead was cut to 15 points.

Buoyed by their second penalty of the afternoon, the crowd seemed to come alive and Leeds began to find their feet. Rowan and James Doherty combined to allow Hughes to bounce off a couple of tackles and crash over.

Bristol secured their try-scoring bonus point just three minutes into the second-half after they won the ball from a Leeds scrum and Tipuna broke away from the back of the pack to score under the upright and Robinson added the two points.

Despite the early setback just minutes into the second half, the influential Rowan and Hughes continued to press the visitors from the West Country but despite numerous attacking phases, handling errors continued to let Leeds down.

Having won a penalty from a scrum on halfway, Bristol threw to the front of the lineout and only a last ditch tackle from Rowan prevented the energetic Tipuna from completing his hat-trick in the corner.

But Mark Sorenson’s men did not have to wait much longer for their fifth score, having worked the ball out wide, prop Gaston Cortes rumbled his way over.

Leeds’ afternoon got worse when referee Thomas Foley showed Rowan and replacement Joe Graham yellow cards for hands in the ruck after Carnegie had twice been penalised just metres from their own line.

Bristol then lost Jack Tovey to the sin-bin for a late tackle on Hughes and it was then Carnegie sensed their opportunity.

First, a swift break involving David Doherty found Holmes, who strode over and after Hughes’ conversion, the home side sniffed a losing bonus point, which for so long had seemed beyond them. Then, from the next attack, Jon Clarke’s offload found the excellent Rowan who rumbled over for a converted try to secure the point.

Leeds Carnegie: Holmes, Goss (Lozowski 61), Clarke, Burdon, D.Doherty, Hughes, J.Doherty (Hampson 40), Harris (Imiolek 49), Nilsen (Graham 60-69), Tussac (Harris 69), Casson (Hannay 63), Myerscough, Sisi (Walker 60), Rowan (c), Burrows.

Bristol Rugby: Wallace, Slowik, Hughes, Eves, Short (Tovey 49), Robinson (Jarvis 77), Tipuna (Baldwin 79), Traynor, Lawrence, Cortes (Hall 61), Glynn (Townson 61), Sorenson (c), Koster (Eadie 61), Rennie, Skirving.

Referee: T Foley (RFU).