Greene King IPA Championship: Yorkshire Carnegie 7 Bristol Rugby 23

DESPITE the margin of defeat, Yorkshire Carnegie's Richard Beck concedes that they have plenty to work on but also stresses that they are not that far away from Bristol and hope to meet them again in the play-offs.

The former Otley and Wharfedale loanee, who scored his first try for Carnegie since 2013-14, said: "We played all right, we tried to throw the ball around a little bit and I think we had some success with it, but we weren't clinical enough in the end and they are a good side.

"There is stuff to work on but I don't think we are a million miles away, and hopefully we will see Bristol again in the play-offs.

"We missed a few chances and gave a few penalties away and they have got a good kicker. There are some things we need to clean up but we are not the finished article."

Carnegie's head coach Bryan Redpath backed up Beck's thoughts, saying: "We had a lot of pressure and didn't capitalise on our opportunities. I don't they were 16 points better than us and they are the best team in the league.

"I think we learnt a lot about ourselves and Bristol, which is the key thing. We created enough to come away with a lot more, and sadly we haven't.

"Our intent was right, and that is key. We have got a lot to work on and also a lot to be proud of."

Former Welsh international and British Lion Gavin Henson kicked 18 points to secure victory for the visitors but Carnegie took the lead after dominating the early exchanges.

Bristol winger Tom Varndell was shown a yellow card for deliberately knocking on, and the hosts punished them with a score from the resulting penalty.

Chris Pilgrim took a quick tap penalty and Beck was able to collect the ball and dive over from close range for the opening try, Kevin Sinfield converting.

Henson then landed two penalties on the back of Carnegie errors before the hosts were denied a try when Jonah Holmes was ruled to have knocked on before David Doherty grounded.

Henson's third penalty made it 9-7 to the visitors at the interval, and two more successes followed in the second half before home hooker Phil Nilsen was sin-binned for a late tackle after a kick ahead.

Bristol cashed in when Jack Lam went over from a rolling maul, and Henson landed his sixth penalty three minutes from time.

Carnegie, who are fourth, level on points with Bedford, were then denied a Joel Hodgson try due to a forward pass.