New faces help lift spirits of Carnegie after exit

The pair had only joined midway through last week but took little time in making a marked impression.

Oxford University scrum-half Egerton scored one try and made another after coming on in the second half and Grimoldby, the 20-year-old on dual-registration from Harlequins, was also impressive, having started at fly-half, kicking three goals.

Both will now hope to feature in Sunday’s Championship game with Moseley as Tommy McGee’s side look to start climbing the table.

Baldwin said: “They’d just been with us a short while and were getting to grips with everything.

“But I thought Grimoldby controlled the game well and showed some nice touches while Sam was really quick around the base and got a great try on debut.

“We had 22 guys in there really disappointed to lose but we have got to be positive.

“There was lots of positive encouragement to be had like lots of players playing their first game in a while coming back from injury and it was a good performance overall.”

A youthful Carnegie squad – making a quick return to Bristol having lost 29-28 at the Championship leaders in the league the previous Sunday –- were forced into a number of changes during the game.

Scrum-half Matt Dudman injured a thumb and lock Dan Preston-Routledge also departed at half-time against a Bristol side that included British Lion scrum-half Dwayne Peel as captain.

“We had a flanker Jack Barnard on the wing at one point but it didn’t stop us playing and we still carried on well,” added Baldwin.

“We fronted up well and were within a chance of winning that game when there were 10 minutes to go.

“If we can play like we have in the last two weeks at Bristol then when we take on Moseley we’ll put in a good performance and that is now the key.”