Bristol 18 Yorkshire Carnegie 13: Committed Carnegie give Bristol fright

Yorkshire Carnegie fell to their third consecutive league defeat but they gave leaders Bristol a massive fright at Ashton Gate.
Yorkshire Carnegie's Callum IrvineYorkshire Carnegie's Callum Irvine
Yorkshire Carnegie's Callum Irvine

After disappointing defeats at Cornish Pirates and Bedford, Carnegie put in a performance of huge commitment to impress their newly-appointed director of rugby, Chris Stirling, and led 13-12 with 10 minutes left on the clock.

However, two penalties from Ian Madigan and a yellow card for Carnegie captain Richard Mayhew allowed the leaders to escape with the spoils.

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After surprisingly losing their unbeaten record to Jersey in their last home fixture, an explosive start was expected from the hosts but Carnegie matched them before a Madigan penalty put Bristol ahead.

Joe Buckle limped off as both sides struggled to bring any continuity to their game with frequent handling errors ensuring that the try-line went unthreatened.

A powerful burst from Bristol skipper Jordan Crane brought some much needed excitement and when the visitors were penalised, Madigan extended the lead with a simple kick

Carnegie continued to infringe and conceded a third penalty success to Madigan before Callum Irvine put them on the scoreboard with the last kick of the half.

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Three minutes after the restart, home prop Gaston Cortes was sin-binned for collapsing a scrum as Carnegie maintained their dominance in that area but they suffered a setback when prop Marc Thomas was stretchered from the field with a leg injury.

The visitors failed to capitalise on the absence of Cortes until they were awarded a penalty try as Bristol’s scrum again folded.

Madigan’s fourth penalty put Bristol back in front. With 13 minutes remaining, a further scrum penalty and subsequent back chat to concede 10 metres saw Irvine succeed with his second penalty but those two late penalties from Madigan saw Bristol to a fortunate win.

Bristol : Morahan, Edwards, Piutau 6 (J.Williams 40), Pisi, Leiua, Madigan, R.Williams (Uren 78), Bevington (Tonga’uiha 40), Harris-Wright (Fenton-Wells 69), Cortes (Lay 54-72,), Joyce, Latta (Jeffries 19), Haining, Crane, Thomas.

Carnegie: Elder, Watkins, Forsyth, Lucock, McColl, Irvine, Fox (Elliott 75), Thomas (Thraves 51), Buckell (M. Mayhew 25), Mitchell (Bryce 59), Whetton, Smith (Bainbridge 59), West, Beck, R. Mayhew.