London Scottish 30 Yorkshire Carnegie 12: Rusty Carnegie suffer opening day setback

Yorkshire Carnegie made a losing start to the Greene King IPA Championship as they went down 28-12 to London Scottish.
Chris Elder.Chris Elder.
Chris Elder.

Carnegie started the game poorly. A sloppy knock on from the kick off put them under immediate pressure, and although their defence managed to hold firm for a while it seemed inevitable that London Scottish would put an early score on the board.

This happened soon after as Jake Sharp produced a good offload to set Tjiuee Uanivi through to score. Sharp added the extras.

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However, after that try, Carnegie began to grow into the game and had a good spell of possession. The visitors did hit back when Andy Forsyth went on a great run and offloaded to Chris Elder, who crossed under the posts for Carnegie. Alex Davies added the extra points to bring the game level.

Yorkshire continued to look the stronger of the two sides after they scored and soon after scored another brilliant try. A slick move started off by Davies saw the ball spun out to Elder who crossed for his second try of the day.

Carnegie however could not sustain their momentum and gave away a needless penalty in their own half. Sharp stepped up for Scottish and slotted over an excellent kick.

Yorkshire rallied again and piled the pressure on to Scottish, with lots of territory, winning several penalties in the Scottish 22, but their momentum was halted when a sloppy line-out saw Scottish turn the ball over and Carnegie could not add to their tally before half-time so led 12-10 at the break.

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The second half began sloppily for Yorkshire, as they conceded a penalty and Sharp made no mistake with his kick.

Yorkshire Carnegie head coach James Lowes.Yorkshire Carnegie head coach James Lowes.
Yorkshire Carnegie head coach James Lowes.

As the game settled down Carnegie started to dominate the set piece, and won a penalty in Scottish territory.

They took the attacking option and kicked for the corner, and despite winning several more penalties from the resulting line-outs, eventually the ball went down and with it the hopes of getting back in front.

Scottish then grew into the half, and Carnegie were lucky to get away unscathed when a lapse in concentration saw London Scottish cross from a quickly taken line out, only for the referee to call them back as they had not taken it from the right spot. Sharp then kicked an easy penalty to give his side a 16-12 lead, before Ben Mosses and Matt Williams scored tries, the last try was converted by Sharp, to put the game to bed in the late stages, and take the final score to 28-12.

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Speaking after the game, Carnegie head coach James Lowes said: “We put a lot into the game but we were very rusty and a lot of that was down to the amount of game time we were able to get in pre-season because of the injuries we have suffered. We started the game poorly and ended up doing a lot of defending in the first 20 minutes.

Yorkshire Carnegie head coach James Lowes.Yorkshire Carnegie head coach James Lowes.
Yorkshire Carnegie head coach James Lowes.

“We got into the game after that and scored some really good tries and should have been further ahead at half-time. We fatigued earlier than I would have liked because of the hard work we did in the first half.”

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