London Welsh edge out London Irish

London Welsh edged out London Irish 15-9 in the Aviva Premiership at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford after Chris Hala’ufia was sent off.

With try-scoring opportunities at a premium in the tight and tense battle of the exiles, it was left to the kickers to take advantage of any mistakes or ill-discipline and put points on the board.

And former Scotland fly-half Gordon Ross was on far better form than either of the men addressing the tee for the visitors, kicking four penalties in the first half to just one apiece from Tom Homer and Ian Humphreys.

Humphreys and Homer were both guilty of missing efforts at goal as well in the opening period but the crucial moment of the match came after just ten minutes when Chris Hala’ufia was given a red card for a nasty-looking tip tackle.

Irish even went down to 13 men at one stage after Matt Garvey was sent to the sin-bin but they still managed to create plenty of points-scoring chances in the second half despite their numerical disadvantage.

Unfortunately for them though, Humphreys and Homer were again found wanting with several more wayward penalty attempts and Ross made them pay for their profligacy by slotting over his fifth successful penalty of the day to make it 15-6 just before the hour mark.

Homer did finally hit the target with quarter of an hour remaining and the numbers were evened up for the final ten minutes after Sonny Parker was sin-binned but the hosts held on to record a vital win over their neighbours and rivals.

Final Score London Welsh 15 London Irish 9

Scorers

London Welsh
Pens: Ross 5
Yellow Card: Parker

London Irish
Pens: Homer 2, Humphreys
Yellow Card: Garvey
Red Card: Hala’ufia

Match Officials
Referee: JP Doyle (50th Premiership game)
Assistant Referees: Paul Dix, Andrew Watson.

Teams

London Welsh

15. Tom Arscott, 14. Dan Caprice, 13. Sonny Parker, 12. Hudson Tonga’uiha, 11. Nick Scott, 10. Gordon Ross, 9. Tyson Keats,8. Adam Balding, 7. Ed Jackson, 6. Daniel Browne, 5. Kirill Kulemin, , 4. Jonathan Mills (c), 3. Paulica Ion, 2. Neil Briggs ,1. Franck Montanella

Replacements: 16. Greg Bateman, 17. Tom Bristow, 18. James Tideswell, 19. Matt Corker, 20. Alfie To’oala, 21. Jamie Stevenson, 22. Alex Davies, 23. Seb Jewell.

London Irish

15. Tom Homer; 14. Topsy Ojo; 13. Sailosi Tagicakibau; 12. Shane Geraghty; 11. Anthony Watson; 10. Ian Humphreys; 9. Darren Allinson; 1. Max Lahiff; 2. Brian Blaney; 3. Leo Halavatau; 4. George Skivington; 5. Bryn Evans; 6. Declan Danaher (Captain); 7.Matt Garvey; 8. Chris Hala’ufia

Replacements: 16. Gerard Ellis; 17.Jerry Yanuyanutawa; 18.Halani Aulika; 19. Kieran Low; 20.Jebb Sinclair; 21. Jamie Gibson; 22. Steven Shingler; 23. Jack Moates