London Scottish 16 Leeds Carnegie 23: Blackett adds the steel but Titterrell injury is a worry

Tries from Lee Blackett, Tommy Bell and Richard Beck gave Edwards’s former Premiership team their first Championship win on the road in west London as they held off an Exiles fightback.

Scottish missed four kicks at goal as they secured a losing bonus point that could easily have been more.

But it was Leeds’s defensive display – particularly from 28-year-old Blackett – that left Edwards purring.

“We were starting to be perceived as a team trying to play fancy rugby without having a hard steel to us,” he said.

“The way we got off the line consistently and put in some dominant shots, we were really pleased with. It was the most physical we’ve been. Lee prides himself on his defence. It is probably the stronger half of his game. He brought an attitude to the defence and a communication that allowed us to be a little more confident.

“We asked our senior players to step up and drive the squad and I thought they did that.”

Blackett opened the scoring with less than five minutes on the clock as he latched on to Jacob Rowan’s break to score between the posts.

But Leeds’ indiscipline meant Scottish twice hit back through full-back Oli Grove’s boot, before Tommy Bell danced over in the corner after good work from the centres had helped send open-side Chris Walker away.

Scottish fly-half Dan Mugford coolly slotted another penalty – after Grove had missed two – to make it 12-9 at the break.

Injuries forced the Exiles into a host of changes at half-time and they had not settled into their stride when scrum-half Matt Heeks’ fluffed box kick gave Leeds the initiative to get Beck over from close range for an unconverted score. The No 9 made up for his error to put Grove in between the posts and Mugford added the extras to make it 17-16.

Bell added a penalty with quarter of the game to go before a lengthy stoppage as hooker Andy Titterell was stretchered off with a suspected broken leg.

The Leeds full-back settled any nerves with a late kick, but it could have been very different had Mugford earlier potted two efforts.

“Andy is not as bad as we feared. There was a concern he had broken his leg, but we’re hopeful it is not as significant as that,” added Edwards. “We’re incredibly pleased to win, but this is just another step forward and we’re not going to get carried away.”

London Scottish: Grove, Holgate, MacDougall (Ratford 5), Brown (Lonergan 41), Howells (Stevenson 42), Mugford, Heeks, Clarke (Liffchak 41), Kwasnicki (Standfield 41), Thiede, Pape, Brown (Thomas H/T), Andrews, Kellard, Bright. Unused: Auterac.

Leeds Carnegie: Bell, Stephenson, Blackett, Barker, Richards, Ford, Shaw, Denman (MacDonald 41), Titterrell (Freer 64), Swainston, Denton (Hemingway 28), Beck, Rowan, Walker, Burrows. Unused: Young, Barrow, White, Lucock.

Referee: M Carley.