Carnegie run ends as Pirates take the spoils

Yorkshire Carnegie's six-match winning run in the Greene King IPA Championship came to an end in their rescheduled game against Cornish Pirates.
Will HomerWill Homer
Will Homer

Pirates took the lead against the run of play when Kyle Moyle started a break and good work from Tom Duncan set up their captain Nico De Battista to race over in the corner, but Will Cargill was unable to add the conversion.

Carnegie hit back in the 17th minute through a Will Homer try down the right side, but he was unable to add the extras, with the ball hitting the posts.The visitors made hard work for themselves by giving away a number of penalties and after Marc Thomas was sent to the sin bin, the Pirates were awarded a penalty try after Carnegie were punished four times at the scrum.

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The hosts, who had lost their last four league games, looked very strong at the scrum and this set the platform for their next try on 32 minutes.

Good handling from Sam Matavesti got the ball out wide to Harry Strong who dived over in the corner to stretch the lead.

Both teams made a scrappy start to the second half and Carnegie were reduced to 14 men when Joe Buckle was sin binned on 53 minutes and seven minutes later Pirates were punished when Chris Morgan was shown a yellow card.

A string of penalties against Pirates allowed Carnegie back into the game and the visitors gave themselves a lifeline when Richard Mayhew crashed over from close range and Homer added the conversion.

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More penalties resulted in the game never getting any flow, but the Pirates put the game beyond Carnegie in the 76th minute when Cargill’s looping pass was collected by Alex O’Meara who raced over out wide for the bonus point try. Once again the conversion was missed.

Carnegie went in search of a score to ensure they went home with at least a losing bonus point, but as the clock ticked down Mike Mayhew was shown a yellow card, leaving the task ahead too difficult, and resulting in a 22-12 defeat for the away side.