LONDON Irish made it a sweet 16 Greene King IPA Championship wins in a row as they claimed a 20-14 success at second-placed Yorkshire Carnegie on a wet Sunday afternoon in Leeds, writes Max Baker-Smith.

The early exchanges at Headingly Carnegie stadium saw both sides keen to put boot to ball, with Exiles the more accurate of the two sides.

The visitors were camped in the Yorkshire 22 as they attempted to open the scoring, but a knock-on from Johnny Williams when the ball was spun wide meant Nick Kennedy's men left with no points.

Yorkshire hit back and Irish gave away a sloppy penalty, allowing the home side to put the ball in the corner. However, the visitors defended the line-out well, and then had a good spell of possession themselves.

They took the lead when a clever chip from James Marshall got Irish in behind the Carnegie defence, and Fergus Mulchrone carried the ball into the Yorkshire 22. Exiles retained the ball, and after several pick-and-goes, Ofisa Treviranus crossed. Greig Tonks slotted the extras to put Nick Kennedy’s men 7-0 ahead.

Irish continued their dominance, and extended their lead when Tonks knocked over a testing penalty, before Carnegie had their first dominant spell of the half, winning a penalty which Tom Catterick pushed left.

However, Irish were unable to clear their lines, and Yorkshire won another, much more straightforward penalty minutes after. However, a poor kick from in front of the posts was shanked left by Catterick and Yorkshire were still unable to get on the board.

Exiles continued to look threatening, and a terrific break from the excellent Alex Lewington got him in behind the hosts’ defence. He chipped through, and had Yorkshire in all kinds of trouble before he needlessly played the man on the floor and let Carnegie off the hook.

In the last 10 minutes of the opening half Yorkshire had a spell of good possession, but the excellent Irish defence showed good line speed, and eventually they managed to win a penalty at the break down and clear their lines as they went in 10-0 up at the break.

The second half started evenly with neither team looking threatening, until Irish managed to win a penalty in Yorkshire territory. With Tonks off injured, Marshall stepped up and slotted it coolly to send Irish into an even more convincing 13-point lead.

Ten minutes into the half, however, a weak clearance kick from Marshall and poor discipline from the chasing pack meant Irish gave away a penalty which was kicked deep into the 22 for a Yorkshire line-out. However, more superb defence nullified the driving maul to win a scrum, and Irish won a penalty at the resulting set-piece to clear their lines.

The hosts kept plugging away though, and kicked another penalty to the corner. This time Irish’s defence could not hold firm,conceding a penalty try, with Aseli Tikoirotuma getting yellow-carded in the process. Steve McColl kicked an easy conversion for Yorkshire who were back in with a shout trailing by only six points.

Exiles responded, though, and a charged down kick deep in Yorkshire territory led them to pile on the pressure. With a penalty waiting, substitute Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi crossed from close range to stretch the lead, an excellent conversion from Marshall putting his side 20-7 in front.

Irish then defended well in Tikoirotuma’s absence, and managed to not concede a single point before he returned with 10 minutes left to play.

Carnegie continued to battle in the final moments of the game, but lacked the quality and precision to really threaten Irish until the closing moments.

However, Carnegie gave themselves hope when wing Jonah Holmes broke two tackles to cross under the posts, and McColl drop kicked from in front of the posts to make it 20-14.

The home side had a couple of minutes to try and squeeze a result, but to no avail on an almost perfect day for Irish, marred only slightly by a potentially serious leg injury to Williams.

London Irish host Yorkshire in the British & Irish Cup quarter finals next Saturday.