Stade Francais 39 Leeds Carnegie 10: Leeds coach Back taking positives from Paris loss

Leeds were well in the game with 10 minutes to go in the first half as they trailed by just three points, but a double sin binning was exploited by the home side who scored two tries before the break and then wrapped up the bonus point win just seven minutes into the second half with a further brace.

However, the scoreline was not the whole story and Leeds head coach Neil Back admitted after the game that his squad will take plenty from the clash.

Back commented: "I am very proud of our players, particularly how we finished the game.

"It was always going to be tough coming here, any game in Paris always is, but we made life difficult for ourselves with the two sinbinnings in the first half.

"Steve Thompson was penalised for coming in at the side of a ruck and whilst we could argue whether that was worthy of a sin bin, we were in the wrong. Phil Nilsen has made a rash decision chasing a kick and for a period we were down to 13 men in the first half.

"However, I think our players will benefit from this experience especially our younger players. A good example of that is James Tincknell. He came off the bench in the last quarter and really lifted our game on attack.

"We have a plan for our next three games to make sure we are in the right position when we return to action in the Aviva Premiership, but we can take plenty of confidence from this performance. The scoreline was not a fair reflection on our effort and I was proud of the players' efforts."

Leeds started brightly and went in front after just two minutes when Ceiron Thomas converted a penalty chance.

Stade replied with two penalties of their own through fly-half Beauxis but the first half was characterised by a number of big hits on defence, none more fierce than Alfie To'oala's on Rodrigo Roncero.

Just as Leeds appeared to have withstood the Stade onslaught there were dealt a blow when the talismanic Thompson was shown a yellow card for deliberately slowing down the opposition at a ruck.

He was replaced in the front row by Phil Nilsen, but he was then dispatched to join Thompson after a clumsy challenge as he chased a high kick. Stade sensed their chance to score the opening try and a well-timed kick from Beauxis made the most of their numerical advantage and Julien Arias knocked ball down over Leigh Hinton's desperate jump for Hugo Southwell to score. Beauxis added the conversion to make it 13-3.

Just as Thompson returned to the pitch, Stade crossed for a fortunate try. Lee Blackett attempted to knock down a pass but the bouncing ball spun into the path of Ollie Phillips and he touched down to leave the half time score at 18-3.

Stade came out determined to book their place in the quarter-final of the Amlin Challenge Cup as one of the top seeds in the competition and they secured the bonus point after just seven minutes of the second half.

Prop Roncero rumbled his way over after just two minutes before number eight Rabadan was awarded his side's fourth try by the video referee. Beauxis added both conversions and in the matter of 15 minutes the score had gone from 6-3 to 32-3.

To their credit, Leeds never threw in the towel and they got their reward just after the hour mark when replacement Daniel Browne crossed for a try, which Thomas converted.

Despite the scoreline, Leeds played some strong rugby with the likes of Luther Burrrell, Tincknell and Warren Fury improving their claims for a more regular spot in the first team.

Leeds had two more clear try scoring chances but Thomas and then Oakley were unable to get over the line and the visitors were cruelly punished in the last minute of the game when winger Arias crossed for his side's fifth try. Replacement Noel Oelschig added the conversion to complete the 39-10 loss.

Leeds will now return to Headingley Carnegie next Sunday for their final pool game in the Amlin Challenge Cup against Romanian minnows Bucharest Oaks before back to back games in the LV Cup.

However, if they can draw more confidence from the trio of Cup clashes they should be in good shape for the demanding run of eleven make or break games in the Aviva Premiership which will decide their top flight fate.

Stade Francais: Southwell, Arias, Bastareaud, Tiesi (Rodriguez, 62), Phillips, Beauxis (Plisson, 73), Dupuy (Oelschig, 62), Roncero (Slimani, 57), Sempere (Bonfils, 72), Ledesma (Gerber, 52), Flanquart (Marchois, 52), Pape, Haskell, Leguizamon (Palmer, 48), Rabadan.

Leeds Carnegie: Hinton (Lewis-Pratt, 48), Blackett, Burrell, Barrow, Fa'afili, Thomas, Mathie (Fury, 52), MacDonald (Hardy, 62), Thompson, Gomez (Swainston, 52), Denton (Nilsen, 62), Wentzel, Myall (Oakley, 52), Fourie, To'oala (Browne, 52).