London Irish outscored Bristol United by three tries to two in their latest Guinness A League match at Sunbury last night.
Two tries, the first by Dan Murphy and the second – a spectacular 60 metre dash by Adam Thompstone, gave the Exiles the perfect start in the opening quarter. The West Country team responded through Graham Beveridge try in the 18th minute when he capitalised on a gap in the home defence. Ross Broadfoot converted one of the Irish tries as did his opposite number Gareth Griffiths for the visitors. Broadfoot added a penalty just before the interval to stretch Irish’s lead to 15-7 at the break.
Although Bristol reduced the lead through a good try by the lively Luke Eves in the 51st minute, Irish had the better of the second half exchanges. Bryan Rennie scored Irish’s third try in the 79th minute to seal the win. In between Ben Stevenson had embellished a fine performance with a penalty in the 73rd minute before adding the conversion to Rennie’s try for a final score of 25-12.