Yorkshire Carnegie 15 Bedford 8: Lions legend elicits instant response from Carnegie

Not since the Lions series in 2009 has McGeechan acted in the role of head coach, and while the two occasions may have been worlds apart Carnegie’s sixth league win of the season still put a smile on the face of the 68-year-old, who has temporarily taken charge of the team in the wake of Tommy McGee’s abrupt midweek exit.

“My last match as head coach was in South Africa for the third Lions Test, so it has been a while,” said McGeechan.

“I’m just pleased I’ve been able to step in and try and make sure that we had as good a week as we possibly could. I’ll always enjoy helping the players out if I still can.”

From seemingly being in the depths of despair after being on the receiving end of a spanking at Rotherham a fortnight ago, remarkably Carnegie find themselves in the top half of the Championship table in sixth.

“It’s a nice place to be, I must admit,” added McGeechan. “The players impressed with their approach during the week and put a lot of effort in today to get what was a hard-fought win in the end.”

Tries from David Doherty and Oli Goss secured the points on a sun-lit Headingley afternoon, but a drop-off in performance in the second half made for a nervy finish as the Blues threatened to snatch a share of the spoils.

This never looked like being the 50-6 rout of last year. A low-key start was perhaps inevitable given the hasty changes to the coaching set-up in midweek, and most of the early play took place between the 22-metre lines.

Starved of possession and guilty of knock-ons the few times they did have the ball in the early exchanges, Carnegie managed to get through fewer phases than they have head coaches in recent years.

However, once Carnegie woke they provided most of the noteworthy attacking rugby in the first half, with half-backs Chris Pilgrim and Harry Leonard justifying their recall to the starting line-up.

Leonard, though, missed his first attempt at goal on 13 minutes after Bedford had been penalised for being offside.

Carnegie continued to press and had Leonard’s well-directed cross-field kick bounced kinder, Doherty would have been in for the game’s first try on 20 minutes.

Then, with half an hour gone, Carnegie scored the opening try. Chris Jones was involved twice in the build-up as Jonah Holmes was wrestled to ground just short of the Blues’ line. However Pilgrim delivered a killer cut-out pass to Doherty who timed his run to perfection to crash over. Leonard added the extras.

Doherty’s defensive intervention prevented Blues profiting from a rare incursion into the Carnegie 22, the winger putting in a big hit on Pat Tapley.

Carnegie led 10-0 at the break after Leonard kicked a scrum penalty and Blues’ fly-half Baden Kerr missed his first shot at goal.

Bedford bossed possession but they continued to be well-shackled by Carnegie’s aggressive and organised defence.

They got some reward tough when Kerr kicked a penalty on 50 minutes after Goss was penalised for not rolling away. Five minutes later Goss finished off a short side move that saw Doherty and Jarad Williams combine to put the centre away. Leonard was unable to convert.

After defending for long periods, with only the occasional trademark Burrows bullocking run relieving pressure, Carnegie’s line was eventually breached when they ran out of numbers and replacement Jake Sharp strolled over on 70 minutes.

Bedford had a chance to take snatch a draw when they worked the ball right but Camilo Parrilli-OCampo botched the chances.

Yorkshire Carnegie: Georgiou, Doherty, Goss, Lucock (Clarke, 57), Holmes (Egerton 64); Leonard, Pilgrim; Beech (Imiolek, 65), Nilsen (Walker, 65), Hill (Tideswell, 74), Jones (Smith, 65), Myerscough, Williams, Walker (Bainbridge, 78), Burrows.

Bedford Blues: Jones, Tapley, Le Bourgeois, Hakalo (Sharp, 64), Staff; Kerr, Veenendaal (Baldwin, 57); Moss (Parilli-Ocampo 54), Harris (Clare, 71), Currie (Boulton, 53), Howard, (Buggea 66), Gulliver, Tupai, Fenton-Wells, Thompson-Stringer. Unused replacement: Wells.

Referee: D Proctor.