Cornish Pirates 20 Leeds Carnegie 27: Leeds bounce back quickly with an overdue win at Pirates

The Yorkshire club showed why they are one of the favourites to reach the end-of -season Championship play-offs with an impressive bonus-point winning display in West Cornwall.

A Leeds offside gave Pirates fly-half Kieran Hallett an early penalty, and the home side’s dominance then produced a try.

Captain and scrum-half Gavin Cattle squeezed over in the scoreboard corner, with Hallett banging over a superb touchline conversion for a 10-0 lead after only eight minutes.

It stung Leeds into action. 
No 8 Ryan Burrows’s surging run down the middle took him to within five metres of the home line and, when the visitors were kept out in the corner, the ball came back to fly-half Glyn Hughes. His cross-field kick picked out former Newcastle Falcons Academy centre Fred Burdon wide on the left, and he dotted down to provide an instant riposte.

Hughes missed the conversion, but Leeds were right back in the match.

Another fantastic break down the right flank by the impressive Burdon almost produced a try, but the Pirates got back in sufficient numbers to snuff out the attack.

Moments later, Pirates winger James Tincknell scared his former club with a sizzling burst up the centre, but six minutes before the break Leeds flyer Jonah Holmes stunned the home crowd with a fine individual try.

The 21-year-old on-loan London Wasps winger brilliantly picked his way through three or four missed tackles to reach the whitewash, and with Hughes slotting the conversion Leeds were in front for the first time in the match.

Leeds, though, were penalised for not rolling away from the tackle soon after and Hallett punished them from 40 metres to edge the Pirates 13-12 ahead.

The see-saw nature of the contest continued, with Leeds awarded a penalty for a scrum offence, and Hughes duly obliged to give the Yorkshire side a 15-13 interval advantage.

Hughes missed a straight-forward penalty chance to extend his side’s advantage early in the second period, but Pirates suffered a blow in the 49th minute when lock Gary Johnson was sin-binned for a ruck offence.

Leeds swiftly capitalised on their one-man advantage, with scrum-half Craig Hampson finishing off a period of pressure on the Pirates’ line to cross between the posts, and Hughes added the simple conversion to give the visitors some welcome breathing space at 22-13.

Hughes missed another penalty, but seven minutes from time full-back David Doherty grabbed his side’s bonus-point try against his former club.

However, replacement Alex Lozowski missed the difficult conversion and a late try by full-back Craig Holland, converted by Angus Sinclair, earned Pirates a well-deserved bonus point of their own.

Cornish Pirates: C Holland, J Tincknell, T Riley, R James, K Goss, K Hallett (A Sinclair 70), G Cattle (capt) (T Kessell ht), A Paver (J Andrew 61), R Elloway (A Carpenter 53), B Prescott (M Maidment 61, A Paver 78), J Sandford (W Graulich 61), G Johnson, C Morgan, A Cheesman (J Parker 58), L McGlone.

Leeds Carnegie: D Doherty, J Holmes, J Griffin (P Lucock 64), F Burdon, O Goss, G Hughes (A Lozowski 72), C Hampson, B Harris (S Lockwood 72), P Nilsen, D Tussac, M Myerscough, C Green, J Rowan (capt), J Doyle, R Burrows (S jones 74). Unused replacements: J Graham, J Armstrong, N Hannay.

Referee: R Campbell (RFU).