London Irish’s lead at the top of the Championship table has been cut to eight points following defeat at Yorkshire Carnegie.
Second-placed Ealing Trailfinders also lost, but picked up a bonus point in their reverse at Richmond on Saturday.
But Declan Kidney’s side could not take advantage on Sunday, going down 26-12 at 10th-placed Yorkshire to keep the title race well alive with five games to play.
Having lost just once in the league all season, Irish fell behind early on at Headingley as Pete Lucock latched onto a Jade Te Rure kick after Topsy Ojo misread the bounce.
The same duo linked up again on the half hour mark to extend the lead to 14-0 as Te Rure kicked to the corner before Lucock crashed over.
Irish responded to halve the deficit by half-time through Ollie Hoskins following a good break by Tom Stephenson with Ian Keatley adding the extras.
And the comeback was complete on 45 minutes with a thrilling team move. Luke McLean made the big burst through the centre to push Irish forwards with the ball eventually worked to Ojo on the far side to cross and score on his 300th London Irish appearance.
Keatley’s missed conversion kept Yorkshire ahead and they pulled further clear with two tries in a five minute spell to kill the contest.
Winger Elijah Niko was the first to do the honours before the sealing score from Andy Forsyth the hosts collected a swirling high ball.
The Exiles put on the pressure late on, but Carnegie saw out a 26-12 victory.
Irish have no game this weekend before the St Patrick’s Party on March 23.
IRISH: McLean (Atkins 76), Ojo (Macken 75), Stephenson, Hepetema, Loader, Keatley, McKibbin (Steele 59), Cilliers (Chawatama 32), Porecki (van Vuuren 75), Hoskins, van der Merwe (Maddison 59), McNally (c), Schatz, Ioane, Rogerson (Treviranus 59).
Tries: Hoskins (35), Ojo (45)
Con: Keatley (36)
YORKSHIRE: Elder, Watkins, Forsyth, Lucock, Niko, Te Rure, Bruzulier, Mayhew (Hill 65), Buckle (Donnellan 65), Nixon (Foster 49), Lemalu, Smith, Mayhew (c) (Wilson 75), Kiri Kiri (Bainbridge 75), Temm.
Tries: Lucock (10) (32), Niko (68), Forsyth (73)
Cons: Te Rure x2 (11,33), Elder (74)
