Irish heading back to the Premiership

Editor

London Irish booked their ticket back to the Premiership after defeating Yorkshire Carnegie 55-48, 84-66 on aggregate.

A high-scoring contest saw both sides finish with six tries apiece, with Irish getting braces through Brendan McKibbin and Alex Lewington.

Ciaran Hearn opened the scoring in the second minute but Yorkshire countered to make the score 10-5 thanks to Seb Stegmann. A tense first half, with tries from McKibbin and Mike Mayhew for Yorkshire, ended at 22-20 after Fergus Mulchrone went over after the TMO ruled out an obstruction.

Irish's burst out of the blocks at the start of the second half more or less killed off the tie, with Lewington showing off impressive footwork as he ripped through the visitors' defence to finish.

McKibbin was soon over too, burrowing low by the posts to score, and once Lewington had a second after a loose pass from Joe Ford, suddenly Irish were comfortably ahead.

Scores from replacement Ben West and a penalty try, after a yellow card for Mike Coman, kept Yorkshire's hopes alive with time ticking along.

And even an off-the-ball scrap between Ben Franks and Charlie Beech, for which both received red cards, couldn't stop Irish from keeping the gap on the scoreboard thanks to the boot of Tommy Bell.

Sione Faletau and a second score from Stegmann meant that in the end Yorkshire finished within seven points, but Irish were more than worthy of their victory and title, with a return to the Premiership now to come later in the year after one season in the English second tier.

The scorers:

For London Irish:
Tries: Hearn, McKibbin 2, Mulchrone, Lewington 2
Cons: Bell 5
Pens: Bell 5
Yellow Cards: Coman, Court
Red Card: Franks

For Yorkshire Carnegie:
Tries: Stegmann 2, M Mayhew, West, Penalty Try, Faletau
Cons: Ford 6
Pens: Ford 2
Yellow Card: Boyce
Red Card: Beech

London Irish: 15 Tommy Bell, 14 Alex Lewington, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Fergus Mulchrone, 11 Topsy Ojo, 10 James Marshall, 9 Brendan McKibbin, 8 Ofisa Treviranus, 7 Blair Cowan, 6 Mike Coman, 5 Jebb Sinclair, 4 Sebastian De Chaves, 3 Ben Franks, 2 David Paice (c), 1 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi
Replacements: 16 Dave Porecki, 17 Tom Court, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 George Robson, 20 Luke Narraway, 21 Scott Steele, 22 Greig Tonks

Yorkshire Carnegie: 15 Chris Elder, 14 Jonah Holmes, 13 Pete Lucock, 12 Tom Casson, 11 Seb Stegmann, 10 Joe Ford, 9 Alex Davies, 8 Ryan Burrows (c), 7 Richard Mayhew, 6 Ollie Stedman, 5 Matt Smith, 4 Mike Myerscough, 3 Michael Cusack, 2 Mike Mayhew, 1 Charlie Beech
Replacements: 16 Ross Graham, 17 Lewis Boyce, 18 Sione Faletau, 19 Ben West, 20 Richard Beck, 21 Max Green, 22 Max Wright

Referee: Matt Carley (RFU)