Irish brush Welsh aside

Props Geoff Cross and Tom Court secured London Irish their first Premiership home win of the season, over basement club London Welsh.

Alex Lewington also touched down and, with Tom Homer adding nine points with the boot, Irish sealed their 175th Premiership victory, ending a run of six successive defeats.

A firsthalf scuffle saw both Tom May and Daniel Leo receive red cards but this had no affect as the home side completed their eighth Premiership win this calendar year.

Welsh, whose points all came from Will Robinson's boot, end 2014 with one solitary point and without a win, equalling Rotherham's 2003 end-of-year tally, the worst ever total at this stage under the current points system.

Robinson and Homer swapped penalties in a cagey opening quarter as both sides were looking for an elusive win.

Despite a dogged, abrasive and even start, Irish lit up the Madejski with a superb try soon after the half hour mark.

Shane Geraghty chipped over the Welsh defence and an awkward bounce sent the ball the way of Fergus Mulchrone, he expertly held off his defender and flicked a sublime offload out the back to Lewington who powered in to score from inside the 22.

Homer added the conversion to the 23-year-old wing's first try since his hat-trick over Saracens in September.

The game then took an ugly turn as, in one incident five minutes before halftime, both Welsh captain May and Irish substitute flank Leo saw red, the latter six minutes after coming on for Kieran Low.

May was given his marching orders for an elbow to Leo's head after a maul, and the Irish player's reactionary blows made sure he would also play no further part.

With two minutes before the break Robinson took Welsh within a score nailing his second penalty of the afternoon.

And with the firsthalf clock dead, Irish thought they had their second try when Topsy Ojo gathered a Geraghty chip and went over but it was ruled out.

Irish increased their lead after the break with prop Cross smashing over from close range following a multi-phase move which Homer converted.

Robinson then hit a penalty from in front of the posts to reduce the deficit to eight, as the bottom-side looked to claw themselves back.

Irish, however, were in search of the bonus point and used their rolling maul well in inclement weather, Court touching down for the Exiles' third score from the back of the drive.

Time ran out and they could not find a fourth to seal the extra point but nevertheless widened the gap between them and Welsh who firmly remain in last place.

The score and scorers!

London Irish 24-9 London Welsh

For London Irish:

Tries: Lewington, Cross, Court

Cons: Homer 3

Pen: Homer

For London Welsh:

Pens: Robinson 3

Red cards: Tom May (London Welsh), Daniel Leo (London Irish)

The teams:

London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Fergus Mulchrone, 12 Shane Geraghty, 11 Alex Lewington, 10 Chris Noakes, 9 Scott Steele, 8 Jebb Sinclair, 7 Blair Cowan, 6 Kieran Low, 5 Nic Rouse, 4 George Skivington (captain), 3 Geoff Cross, 2 David Paice, 1 Tom Court.

Replacements: 16 Harry Allen, 17 Leo Halavatau, 18 Halani Aulika, 19 Daniel Leo, 20 Ofisa Treviranus, 21 Tomas O'Leary, 22 Eamonn Sheridan, 23 Andrew Fenby.

London Welsh: 15 Will Robinson, 14 Elliot Kear, 13 Tom May (captain), 12 Seb Jewell, 11 Nick Scott, 10 Piri Weepu, 9 Rob Lewis, 8 Opeti Fonua, 7 Carl Kirwan, 6 Lachlan McCaffrey, 5 Dean Schofield, 4 James Down, 3 Taione Vea, 2 Nathan Vella, 1 Nathan Trevett.

Replacements: 16 Nathan Morris, 17 Ricky Reeves, 18 Ben Cooper, 19 Peter Browne, 20 Ben Pienaar, 21 Paul Rowley, 22 James Tincknell, 23 Seb Stegmann.

Referee: Greg Garner

Assistant referees: Nigel Carrick and Roy Maybank

TMO: David Sainsbury