WATCH: Carnegie not amused as Ealing hit back to pinch a draw

Academy winger Reon Joseph, on debut for Ealing, scored his second try in the 79th minute, allowing Peter Lydon to convert and level a game the hosts had dominated for large periods.

Carnegie’s Stevie McColl had a 55m penalty to win it deep in injury-time but his effort just fell short.

However, they were furious when, with Ealing down to 14 men after replacement scrum-half Calum Waters was sin-binned for deliberately knocking the ball into touch on the hour, they had the visitors under intense pressure with a series of 5m scrums.

Referee Adam Leal continued to re-set when the hosts were on top and – at 23-16 – a penalty try seemed certain. It never came, though, and Ealing recovered to rescue a draw.

Rearranged after being postponed during the bad weather last month, James Lowes’ side must have felt they had a fine chance of victory here given the number of changes the visitors made.

Clearly, Ealing did have one eye on Saturday’s British & Irish Cup semi-final against Bedford Blues, making a dozen changes and bringing only four replacements.

Carnegie also played on Saturday, suffering a disappointing defeat at bottom-placed Rotherham Titans, but Lowes made only a handful of alterations to his side.

It looked as if they might be suffering from the aftermath of that as Ealing – with so many fresh legs – started at apace.

Carnegie, in fact, were fortunate perhaps not to have a yellow card brandished against them inside the opening five minutes after conceding a raft of penalties.

Leal did speak to captain Richard Mayhew before Ealing moved it wide for Joseph to wrap around to his opposite flank and score his opener.