The National League One Round 6 has been completed and sees Leeds Carnegie continue to lead the way.

London Welsh 0 Leeds Carnegie 38

Leeds Carnegie cemented their place at the top of National League One as they ran out comfortable 38-0 winners against London Welsh.  Leeds, who suffered relegation from the Guinness Premiership last year, have settled in well to life in the second tier of English rugby and still maintain their 100% record with six wins out of six. By Steve Chanbers

Leeds dominated the game throughout and tries from Leigh Hinton, Hendre Fourie, Scott Barrow, penalty and Jon Goodridge helped the Yorkshire side to a comfortable win and takes them five points clear at the top of the table.

Leeds Carnegie: Try; Hinton, Fourie, Barrow, Penalty, Goodridge – Cons; Di Bernardo (4), Hinton – Pens; Di Bernardo

Exeter 71 Sedgley Park 5

Exeter Chiefs ran in eleven tries as they demolished Sedgley Park 71-5 at Sandy Park.  Exeter were looking to put pressure on table-toppers Leeds but conditions were not easy for free-flowing rugby as the rain lashed down in the West Country.

However, the Chiefs adapted the better and had an unassailable 47-5 half-time lead thanks to tries from Sam Blythe, Sean Marsden (2), Josh Drauninui, Kevin Barrett and Ben Moon with Lisiate Tafa scoring the only try for the visitors.

The second half saw Exeter rack up another five tries with the star of the show being Matt Jess, who scored a superb hat-trick and a try apiece for Alan Miller and Danny Gray moves Exeter up to second spot.

Exeter: Try; Blythe, Marsden (2), Drauninui, Barrett, Moon, Jess (3), Miller, Gray – Cons; Gray (8)

Sedgley Park: Try; Tafa

Coventry 3 Bedford 26

Bedford notched up their fifth victory of the season with a comfortable 26-3 win over Coventry at The Butts Park Arena.

Bedford took an early lead when James Pritchard scored two penalties to give the visitors a 6-0 lead. The Blues extended their lead when Ian Davey outpaced the Coventry defence to score in the corner.  Pritchard missed the conversion but minutes later scored his third penalty to take Bedford 14-0 ahead.  On the stroke of half-time Coventry were dealt a blow when lock Sam Herrington was sent off after an incident at a ruck.

In the second half Davey grabbed his second try for Bedford after good work from Pritchard in his own 22.  Pritchard converted and then manufactured another try as he scythed through a tiring Cov defence to send Billy Twelvetrees over.  Coventry’s only points came from the boot of Ronnie McLean-Dents.
Coventry: Pens; McLean-Dents

Bedford: Try; Davey (2), Twelvetrees – Cons; Pritchard – Pens; Pritchard (3)

Otley 16 Plymouth Albion 31

Otley suffered their sixth consecutive defeat of the season as they lost 31-16 against Plymouth Albion.  Newly-promoted Otley have struggled in National League One and have yet to win this season and lie one place off the bottom of the table.

Otley took an 11-3  lead into half-time after Tom Rhodes had slotted two penalties and winger robin Kitching had dived over for the Yorkshire side.  Plymouth’s only scoring play was a penalty from Kieran Hallett.

The tables turned in the second half with Albion scoring four tries to Otley’s one.  Firstly Arran Cruickshanks went over to reduce the gap but Otley replied immediately thanks to Rob Baldwin crashing over from close range.  However, they were the final points for Otley and Plymouth began to dominate and secured the comeback with tries from Keni Fisilau, Justin Mensah-Coker and Gareth Evans to move Albion up to seventh.

Otley: Try; Kitching, Baldwin – Pens; Rhodes (2)

Plymouth Albion: Try; Cruickshanks, Fisilau, Mensah-Coker, Evans –Cons; Hallett (4) – Pens; Hallett

Nottingham 18 Doncaster 9

Nottingham leapfrog Doncaster in National League One as they beat their Yorkshire opponents 19-8 at The Bay. 

In this tightly contested affair, all the points were scored in the first half with both teams cancelling each other out in the second.

Nottingham took the lead when Tim Taylor breached the Doncaster defence and went over in the corner.  Taylor then doubled the home sides lead when yet again he created a gap and raced to the try line to score his second try of the game. 

Doncaster found it difficult to break down the Nottingham rearguard and could only get on the board with the boot.  Two Jamie Lennard penalties narrowed the gap and Ali Warnock chipped in with a drop-goal but that was all the visitors could muster as David Jackson added a third try for Nottingham and helped move them into fourth place.

Nottingham: Try; Taylor (2). Jackson – Pens; Jackson

Doncaster: Pens; Lennard (2), Drop-Goal; Warnock

Rotherham Titans 47 Moseley 23

Rotherham Titans convincingly beat Moseley 47-23 at Clifton Lane and it help notch up the Yorkshire club’s second win in as many weeks.

Rotherham took a comfortable 21-8 half-time lead thanks to tries from Errie Claassens, Ryan Burrows and Neil Chivers with Moseley only managing a try in reply through Charlie Sharples.

The second half saw the Titans dominate possession and territory as they began to pull away from their Birmingham opponents.  Firstly, Mike Whitehead dived over to add to their half-time lead but Moseley responded and scored a couple of tries through Paul Cox and James Rodwell.

Nevertheless, Rotherham added to their try tally with Gregor Hayter, Hugo Horn and Tinus Du Plessis grabbing a try apiece to send Rotherham away from the lower end of the league and sends them into next week’s fixture at Cornish Pirates in good form.

Rotherham Titans: Try; Claassens, Burrows, Chivers, Whitehead, Hayter, Horn, Du Plessis – Cons; Barlow (5), West

Moseley: Try; Sharples, Cox Rodwell – Cons; Vasey – Pens; Vasey (2)

Manchester 6 Cornish Pirates 12

Manchester stay rooted to the foot of the table with their sixth successive league defeat as they went down 12-6 against Cornish Pirates.

Manchester have been on the back of some heavy defeats, but this game was a lot closer with both defences out-muscling the attacking prowess of both sides. 
The first-half was extremely close and the only difference between the two sides at the break was a try from Cornish Pirates scrum-half Nicky Griffiths and a conversion from Rhys Jones.

After the break Manchester got back into the game with two Gareth Wynne penalties to get the home team within one point.  It was the closest they got to the Pirates and Marika Vakacegu sealed the victory when he dashed over to score to give the visitors a narrow victory.

Manchester: Pens- Wynne

Cornish Pirates: Try; Griffiths, Vakacegu - Cons; Jones

Newbury 8 Esher 14

Esher swapped places with Newbury in the National League One table as they beat the Blues 14-8 in a closely contested game.

Both teams had only gained one league victory all season and you were unable to split the teams at half-time.  A try for Martin Nutt gave the home side the advantage but Esher’s Mike Blakeburn restores parity as he crashed over for the visitors.  A penalty apiece for Ben Stevenson and Seb Jewell sent the teams into the break locked at 8-8.

After the break the conditions were not helping the attackers and it was left to the boot of Jewell to wrap up the victory for Esher as he slotted two penalties to hand the visitors their second win of the season and it moves them away from the dreaded drop zone.

Newbury: Try; Nutt – Pens; Stevenson

Esher: Try; Blakeburn – Pens; Jewell (3)

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