Leeds Carnegie 26 London Scottish 3: Four-try Leeds maintain momentum in race for the play-offs

Scottish came to Hull Ionians’ Brantingham Park for another ‘on the road’ Leeds game seeking their sixth consecutive league victory.

But they were largely second-best to Diccon Edwards’ Carnegie, who claimed a bonus-point victory to follow their win over Cornish Pirates last Sunday at Otley.

The extra point arrived courtesy of Chris Walker, who touched down under a mass of bodies in stoppage-time to follow earlier tries from Oli Goss, Jacob Rowan and Joe Ford, who was in for Rory Clegg, on LV Cup duty with Harlequins at the weekend.

Leeds were in the box seat from the first whistle, with their forwards – whose pack has been transformed since the arrival of former Wharfedale coach Tommy McGee as scrummage coach – turning the screw and maintaining dominance in the set-piece for large chunks of proceedings in front of a crowd of 1,261.

Despite holding sway in terms of territory, Leeds failed to turn their dominance into a decent points haul in the first period, although the only try they did score was a moment to savour.

A brilliant blindside run following a ruck from skipper Jacob Rowan cut through the Exiles defence before he astutely drew the cover before offloading to the support Goss to score – with Ford converting on six minutes.

Scottish got on the board, thanks to a 40-metre penalty from James Love, who then missed a simple opportunity which hit the crossbar.

Despite piling on the pressure, particularly in the scrum, Leeds could not open up the visitors for the rest of the half, which increasingly became stop-start.

But Carnegie had to wait just five minutes for some try-scoring action on the restart when a sterling drive from the forwards ended with Walker making a super break before producing a one-handed offload to enable the supporting Rowan to go over in the corner, Ford converting.

That was the prelude to an improved showing from Scottish, who were shaken out of their lethargy – only to meet a formidable Carnegie defence on their attacking forays.

Leeds withstood everything the Exiles could throw at them and they were rewarded in the last 10 minutes.

First, an unlikely try-scorer arrived in the shape of Ford, who went over for just the second of his professional career and first in league rugby.

Scottish were all at sea following a kick from the young fly-half and he raced through to score between the posts – converting his own score to make it 21-3.

With the final play of the game, Walker grabbed the bonus-point try from close in. The five points sees Leeds climb above Bristol into fourth with four games to go. Bristol have a game in hand.

Leeds Carnegie: McColl, Goss, Griffin, Burdon, D Doherty, Ford, Hampson, Harris, Freer, Tussac, Green, Smith, Baldwin, Walker, Rowan. Replacements: Graham, Imiolek, Currie, Phillips, Burrows, Frost, Georgiou.

London Scottish: Thompson; Love, Gidlow, Reay, Howells; Godman, Bolt; Irish, Kwasnicki, Thiede; Spivey, Hotson; Russell, Pennycook, Bright. Replacements: Mayhew, Allen, Fry, Calder, Samson, Whatling, McCall.

Referee: G MacDonald (RFU).