London Irish 40 Leeds Carnegie 22: Optimism still high at Leeds despite Irish loss

Leeds are rooted to the foot of the table but director of rugby Andy Key was feeling optimistic after defeat by the leaders at the Madejski Stadium.

"Despite the result we are very pleased," he said.

"This was a completely different performance. This was a marked improvement, we played with a never-say-die attitude and played for the whole 80 minutes.

"We were back to our post-Christmas form of last season and against a number of sides we would have got a win."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Yorkshiremen were in contention until the sin-binning of Hendre Fourie late in the second half.

Key added: "I thought Hendre was very unlucky. He had stolen the ball on a number of similar occasions and I felt he was pulled over the ruck by Irish players.

"However I don't want to take issue with that aspect as I take great positives from our performance and we have to reproduce this performance in the next few weeks."

London Irish head coach Toby Booth hailed his team for winning ugly.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Three penalties from Ryan Lamb, who ended with a personal haul of 18 points, and a converted try from hooker James Buckland helped the Exiles to a 16-7 advantage. Ceiron Thomas crossed for the visitors and converting his own try.

The home side added further scores through replacement wing Sailosi Tagicakibau (2) and George Stowers, meaning tries from Fourie and Luther Burrell were not enough for Carnegie.

Booth said: "It was a very slow start without question and we felt our way into the game but I was confident that over a full 80 minutes we would be successful. It was a workmanlike performance with no glitz or glamour and we are satisfied but not happy with our overall performance.

"We won ugly and we will take that."

Booth was delighted to still to be top of the table but is certain there is still room for improvement.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"If it was a school report after the first quarter I would describe it as very good," he added.

"However, we haven't played fantastically, Newcastle apart, and there is much to improve.

"For example, not conceding three tries at home and being more precise in certain areas."

After a scrappy start to the match, Irish had the first chance to open the scoring after six minutes when the visitors were penalised but Lamb was short with his kick from 45 metres out, and the fly-half was also off the mark with an effort from the other side of the field.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Leeds had the better of the first quarter with some neat inter-passing among the forwards building some pressure in the home 22 but they frequently incurred the displeasure of the referee, conceding seven penalties in the first 15 minutes.

From one of these, Lamb kicked the Irish into the lead after 17 minutes.

Immediately from the restart, back came Leeds to take a surprise lead. Their forwards again rumbled into the home 22 and from a ruck 10 metres out Thomas ran strongly to score between the posts with the outside-half converting his own try.

Irish found some momentum to their game putting Leeds under severe pressure, and once again the visitors offended and Lamb kicked the simple penalty.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Thomas had the chance to restore his side's advantage but his 45-metre penalty attempt went wide.

Leeds were being penalised with monotonous regularity and it became inevitable that a yellow card would be issued.

It fell to Fourie to receive it for diving over at a ruck and Irish took immediate advantage with a close-range try from Buckland which Lamb converted, and then, with the last kick of the half, he kicked a penalty to give the home side a somewhat underserved 16-7 lead.

Leeds started the second half strongly and Thomas reduced the arrears with his first penalty after 44 minutes but Lamb replied with a three-pointer of his own soon after.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Irish then woke from their slumbers and produced their best movement of the match which resulted in replacement Tagicakibau beating a couple of defenders to score. Lamb converted that try and another one soon followed from Stowers which put Irish out of sight.

The visitors continued to battle and were rewarded with a try from Fourie converted by Thomas, but they faced a daunting last eight minutes when Rhys Oakley became another casualty to the sin-bin.

Tagicakibau scored his second try which Chris Malone converted.

Burrell picked up a consolation try for the visitors which Christian Lewis-Pratt converted with the last kick of the game.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

London Irish: D Armitage, Ojo, Mapusua, Bowden, Joseph, Lamb, Hodgson, Dermody, Buckland, Corbisiero, Kennedy, Casey, Roche, Danaher, Stowers. Replacements: Seveali'i for Bowden (55), Tagicakibau for Joseph (55), Malone for Lamb (68), Lahiff for Dermody (73), Paice for Buckland (55), Rautenbach for Corbisiero (51), Fisher for Roche (68), Garvey for Danaher (50).

Leeds Carnegie: Hinton, Stephenson, Tincknell, Burrell, Tadulala, Thomas, Mathie, MacDonald, Titterrell, Gomez, Hohneck, Wentzel, Myall, Fourie, Paul. Replacements: Fa'afili for Tadulala (72), Lewis-Pratt for Thomas (73), Fury for Mathie (59), Thompson for Titterrell (51), Alonso for Gomez (40), O. Denton for Hohneck (59), Oakley for Paul (20). Unused: Hardy.

Referee: G Garner (RFU).

Scorers

London Irish – Tries: Buckland, Tagicakibau 2, Stowers. Cons: Lamb 3, Malone. Pens: Lamb 4. Leeds – Tries: Thomas, Fourie, Burrell. Cons: Thomas 2, Lewis-Pratt. Pen: Thomas.

Related topics: