Leeds may be bottom but it's base camp for the long haul
Leeds 15 Gloucester 13
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Your support makes all the difference.Neil Back praised his players for the sacrifices they have made to ensure Leeds Carnegie got their first Premiership win of the season, a narrow success over Gloucester.
Tries from Hendre Fourie and Michael Stephenson edged the determined home side to victory as Gloucester continued to struggle on their travels. Ceiron Thomas added a conversion and a penalty.
James Simpson-Daniel got Gloucester's try in the first half and England Under-20 fly-half Freddie Burns kicked two penalties and a conversion, but the day belonged to Leeds. Head coach Back said: "We are still at the bottom with a mountain to climb, but with three wins in a row now, including the two in Europe, it's a good place to be.
"The squad's positivity and belief belies where we are. I'm just proud they've dug in, we set objectives four or five weeks ago, post our last Premiership game at Harlequins where we were dished up that day.
"We had a hard look at ourselves and we knew the response lay with the players. The three games we've had, we've won, so we're doing all we can and hope to take that confidence and belief and winning mentality away to Bath.
"I said before today 65 points are still available, the team that finished top last year did so with 63. We know what we need to do to stay up in the Premiership and that's to get more points than the team below."
Gloucester coach Bryan Redpath, cut a frustrated figure as his side failed to strengthen their claims for a top-fourplace, something he feels will remain beyond them if they continue to make basic errors.
Redpath said: "We just didn't control possession enough, in terms of contact area, high balls, passing into touch. Our basics weren't good enough. It was a soft try in the first half and then the penalty, and outside of that they were hardly in our 22 other than the restart.
"We scored a reasonable try but we played too narrow and didn't have enough ambition at certain parts. When you play against a very efficient No 7 in Fourie you are giving it him easy if you keep running into his channel. That certainly wasn't the game plan but these things happen and pressure adds to it.
"We've flirted with the top four. We are realising how hard it is to get up there."
Scorers: Leeds: Tries: Fourie, Stephenson Con: Thomas Pen: Thomas. Gloucester: Try: Simpson-Daniel Con: Burns Pens: Burns 2
Leeds: Thomas; Blackett, Fa'afili, Barrow, Stephenson; MacKay, Fury (Mathie 51); Hardy (MacDonald 51), Thompson, Swainston; T Denton, Wentzel (capt) (Myall 15); Oakley (Paul 60), Fourie, Browne.
Gloucester: Morgan; Simpson-Daniel (Sharples 53), Tindall (capt), Fuimaono-Sapolu, Vainikolo; Burns (Robinson 63), R Lawson (Lewis 60); Wood, S Lawson, Capdevielle (Harden 18); James, Brown; Buxton, H
azell (Qera 60), Narraway.
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth (RFU).
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