Late escape for Exiles
A late try from David Paice was enough to spare the blushes for London Irish after Leeds threatened to pull off a shock win.
Last Updated: 27/01/08 5:56pm
A late try from David Paice was enough to spare the blushes for London Irish after Leeds threatened to pull off a shock win.
With Worcester recording their first victory of the season to pull clear of the bottom, the pressure was on Leeds to respond.
And they so nearly did after Leigh Hinton and Tom Biggs both crossed for tries and Alberto Di Bernardo landed 14 points.
However Paice crashed over to added to tries from Tomas De Vedia, Delon Armitage and Sailosi Tagicakibau to ensure the Exiles snatched a 26-24 victory - their first away win in the league for 10 months.
Exiles full-back Peter Hewat and Di Bernardo had exchanged penalties before two tries in a four-minute spell midway helped put the visitors in control.
Centre Armitage crashed over in the left corner on 17 minutes following Hewat's kick, before de Vedia finished off a scintillating move. Hewat and Nick Kennedy combined to put the Argentinean winger over.
Leeds responded with another Di Bernado penalty only for Hewat, who missed both conversions, to move Irish back into a 16-6 lead.
Burrowed
The second half saw the home side finally find the breakthrough when John Holtby set Hinton up to score after 45 minutes
The Leeds comeback suffered a setback when Tagicakibau burrowed his way over from close range.
However, when Warren Fury was sinbinned for persistent infringements, the bottom side sensed their chance.
Di Bernado slotted over a penalty then added the conversion after Jonny Hepworth put Biggs over for his 37th try for Leeds.
That saw the scores levelled at 21-21 - only for Paice to crash over to put the visitors back into the lead with just eight minutes left.
Leeds managed to cut the deficit again with another Di Bernado penalty, however they could not find that extra score to snatch the victory.
