Video: Yorkshire Carnegie 10 London Welsh 33 - Carnegie's flawed choices lead to another disappointing final
It was hard to envisage such an emphatic scoreline against them after Bryan Redpath’s had controlled so many aspects of the first period and, indeed, trailed by just two points on the hour mark.
But Welsh punished Carnegie – who even had home advantage in their favour – brutally for their wasted opportunities and, therefore, became worthy winners of the oft-maligned competition with winger James Lewis’s hat-trick central to the victory.
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Hide AdFor the Headingley-based side, however, it was a second defeat in the B&I Cup final in just three seasons having also fallen heavily versus Leinster A in Dublin in 2014.
Throw in the National Trophy final to Moseley at Twickenham in 2009, and there has not been much to laud when it comes to such occasions.
Nevertheless, of course, the priority this term is winning promotion into the Premiership so they will now look to learn lessons from this disappointing defeat in readiness for the forthcoming Championship play-offs that arrive at the end of the month.
They will certainly want to look at some of their decision-making, not least a bizarre call that failed spectacularly in first-half stoppage-time.
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Hide AdTrailing 5-3, just 10 seconds remained before the interval when they committed what was tantamount to hari-kari to gift Welsh a second try.
Phil Nilsen threw a line-out 10m from his own line, but opted to go long when surely a short throw would have been far less risky.
Matt Smith duly failed to collect, Welsh instead claimed the ball and scrum-half Rob Lewis dinked through a grubber that twin brother James did brilliantly to touch down.
Asked about that decision, Redpath admitted: “There was a lot of things in there that maybe were not as good as we would have liked, but that’s what happens.
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Hide Ad“(Yesterday) was like that. Nothing went our way in certain parts.
“They put a lot of pressure on in certain areas of our game and they benefited from that to get out on top.
“We just have to eat humble pie and get on with it.”
Winger Lewis had scored Welsh’s opener, too, on 20 minutes with one of the visitors’ few forays into Carnegie’s 22, bursting onto Joe Carlisle’s fired pass and catching Joel Hodgson out of position.
Carlisle failed to convert, but did not miss with the second attempt.
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Hide AdThat first try emanated from Carnegie failing to release on the ground, Ryan Burrows caught in possession, just as Nilsen did later on when in good attacking position to further frustrate Redpath’s side.
It was such offences that stunted the hosts’ progress although they did make an immediate impact at the start of the second half.
Lock Mike Myerscough surged through after running off Nilsen’s shoulder and, although he was eventually dragged down by the last Welsh defender, the home side was not deterred.
Chris Walker twisted over out wide for Kevin Sinfield, who had kicked one penalty but missed a second in the first half, to convert.
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Hide AdCarnegie had dominated territory in the opening 40 minutes, but gained little from it as a series of line-out drives were too easily dealt with by their opponents.
But having got back to 12-10, you sensed they would then push on to victory, especially having defeated the same opponents 31-28 just eight days earlier during their Championship match at Richmond.
Instead they failed to gain any real momentum, Welsh superbly nullifying their line-out drive whenever Sinfield kicked to the corner.
Handling errors crept in, too, and it was the visitors who took a grip courtesy of a fine try in the 62nd minute, No 8 Kieran Murphy finishing in the corner following some quality handling from halfway.
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Hide AdCarlisle converted before, eight minutes later, prop Nathan Trevett benefited as his side demonstrated to Carnegie how to execute a line-out drive successfully.
Carlisle improved once more before Lewis completed his treble in the 80th minute following a stunning run from Chris Elder, the rangy full-back who had already caused Carnegie’s defence plenty of concerns, and Olly Barkley slotted the kick.
Carnegie’s best chances had come in the first period when winger Taylor Prell thought he had scored after the Welsh defence was prised open and he kicked on only to be ruled out due to a debatable knock-on.
Walker was denied, too, held up over the line, after a clever and well-worked short line-out move.
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Hide AdHowever, such clear-cut opportunities dried up in the second half when Rowland Phillips’s side – who had produced some remarkable results in their B&I Cup campaign – exerted their authority to claim a maiden title in front of 3,107 fans, an improvement on Carnegie’s average crowd, at least.
Yorkshire Carnegie: Hodgson; Goss, Wright, Casson (Burdon 65), Prell; Sinfield (Leonard 71), Pilgrim (Green 66); Beech (Imiolek 71), Nilsen (Graham 62), Tideswell (Hooper 62), Myerscough (Beck 65), Smith, Jones, C Walker, Burrows.
London Welsh: Elder; J Lewis, Armitage, Jewell, Drauninu; Carlisle (J Davies 78), R Lewis (O Barkley 78); Trevett (Marfo 77), Britton (Cooper 55), Gilding (Morris 55), McNally (Pienaar 79), West, Skuse, Hodson (Corker 79), Murphy.
Referee: Craig Evans (WRU)