Bucharest 9 Leeds Carnegie 23: Opening win lifts Back's men ahead of daunting French test

Head coach Neil Back knows that his side will need to improve greatly when they take on French side Stade Francais at Headingley Carnegie next Sunday evening but the Leeds chief believes his side will be better for the victory.

He commented: "We came here knowing that Bucharest would play a physical and fairly negative game that tried to stop us playing. They did that successfully in the first half but this was always going to be a game that was going to be won over 80 minutes. We got our just deserts in the second half and we were pleased to come out 23-9 winners.

"We will take that winning confidence in to Sunday's game against Stade Francais. There could have been more tries against Bucharest, they had two men put in the bin because they deliberately stopped tries, so we can draw confidence from that."

Leeds trailed in the rain in the first half in the Romanian capital when full-back Florin Vlaicu kicked two penalties.

The visitors created opportunities but too often knocked on just as they appeared to be wearing their opponents down.

Leeds lost Jacob Rowan after 31 minutes when the back-row suffered a leg injury. The introduction of Daniel Browne brought a direct approach to the Leeds attack and they eventually got their reward when an eight-man shove at a scrum 20 metres from the Bucharest line, after the home side had had the put in, earned Carnegie a penalty within kicking range. Christian Lewis-Pratt stepped up to cut the deficit after 38 minutes.

That was to prove to be a turning point as Leeds recognised that the the way to control the game was through the forwards. The second half saw the visitors take the game directly to Bucharest.

The home side were continuingly penalised as they desperately attempted to prevent Leeds scoring.

Eventually, hooker Andrei Radoi was sin-binned and Leeds sensed their chance. French referee Laurent Cardona had no option but to award a penalty try after 55 minutes.

Lewis-Pratt added the conversion and a subsequent penalty to take his side into a 13-6 lead.

Bucharest were reduced to 14 men again with 10 minutes to go when winger Catalin Fercu was sin-binned for deliberately slapping down a potential try-scoring pass. Ceiron Thomas, on for Lewis-Pratt, gave his side a 10-point lead.

Bucharest appeared to take a losing bonus point with a third penalty in stoppage time from Vlaicu but Leeds winger Henry Fa'afili popped up with the final play of the game to cross for his side's second try. Thomas added the conversion to make the final score 23-9.

Despite making heavy weather of beating the part-timers from Romania, Back is looking forward to taking on one of the biggest clubs in European rugby. He added: "Stade Francais are one of the best teams in Europe. It will be a tough test but we will put out a side that can challenge.

"We knew coming on the road would be tough and they would physically challenge us. Hopefully, the result will springboard us onto more victories, starting next week and then two massive games in the Premiership against Sale and Wasps at home."

Bucharest Oaks: Vlaicu, Lemnaru, Cazan (Ghera 61), Gal, Fercu, Sarbu (Nicolae 42), Calafeteanu (Surugiu 71), Dico (Tamba 57), Radoi (Beca 72), Nere (Badalicescu 57), Lazar (Valcu 27 and 40), Burcea, Ianus (Valcu 64), Carpo. Unused: Rosu

Leeds Carnegie: Hinton, Stephenson, Tincknell, Burrell (O Denton 74), Fa'afili, Lewis-Pratt (Thomas 70), Fury (White 80), Hardy (MacDonald 65), Nilsen, Alonso (Moreno-Rodriguez 65), T Denton, Hohneck (Craig 48), Myall, Rowan (Browne 31), Oakley. Unused: Gomez.

Referee: L Cardona (France).