Carnegie Challenge Cup 2009: 3rd Round, Leeds Met vs. Rochdale Hornets

Leeds Met Carnegie's Carnegie Challenge Cup dream came to an end after a hard-fought game against Rochdale Hornets.

The national student rugby league champions lost a pulsating contest 24-38 against a physical Rochdale side.

The University team were looking to make history as they attempted to become the first student side to reach the fourth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup. Despite trailing 22-8 at half time, the students showed real character to fight back and scored three tries early in the second half to lead 24-22. Ultimately the superior finishing ability of the Hornets put pay to any comeback from Leeds Met though, as the Rochdale side eventually ran out worthy winners.

Leeds Met put on a brave display against the Cooperative Championship 1 side in front of a vocal crowd at Headingley Carnegie Stadium and opened the scoring through an Iain Gordon penalty after eight minutes. The Hornets replied immediately however with a try from second row Ian Sinfield who finished under the posts. Rochdale scored three further first half tries through Brocklehurst, Ainscough and winger Craig Johnson to take a stranglehold on the game, but the University team showed great resilience and character and got their just rewards on the stroke of half time. Strong running from Danny Vetto brought Leeds Met towards the line and a clever offload saw Scott Ellan burst over to make it 8-22 at the break.

Coach Paul Fletcher clearly made an impact on the Leeds Met Carnegie team at half time and they came out fired up for the second half. A Jon Paxton try after 42 minutes saw the Leeds side grow in belief and they then scored again after the restart through Stu Dunbar to get themselves right back in the game. An upset looked on the cards after 56 minutes when a fine team move saw stand off Iain Gordon claim a try under the posts, which he converted to put Leeds Met Carnegie into the lead.

However, the fairytale cup upset was not to be as Rochdale showed their class with further scores through Gambles, Rafferty and Giles to progress through to Monday night's 4th round draw.

Leeds Met Carnegie captain Matt Carbutt, speaking after the game, reflected on what might have been: "I thought the boys put in a fantastic performance today. It's a massive honour to be playing at Headingley Carnegie and the crowd got right behind us. We'll certainly learn from this experience and we know we are getting better year on year. Our response after half time was massive and we can be very proud of the effort we put in."

Leeds Met Carnegie next game is against Loughborough on Thursday in a BUCS championship final to be played at West Park.

The fourth round draw will take place live on BBC Radio Five Live on Monday 9 March at 8pm.

Leeds Met 24 Rochdale Hornets 38
Attendance 200
Leeds Met try scorers: Scott Ellan, Jon Paxton, Stu Dunbar, Iain Gordon
Goals: Iain Gordon 4

Rochdale Hornets try scorers: Ian Sinfield, Mark Brocklehurst, Martin Ainscough, Craig Johnson, Martin Gambles, Paul Rafferty, Chris Giles
Goals: Chris Giles 5

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Leeds
• Met
• Carnegie
• Challenge
• Cup
• Rochdale
• Hornets
• Rugby
• League