Match Report: London Irish A 10, Saracens Storm 24

In wet and windy weather, some of the London Irish squad picked up some valuable match minutes against Saracens Storm in a friendly at Hazelwood.

Tries from Izzy Moore-Aiono and Kyle Rowe weren’t enough to prevent the visitors from running out the victors.

Saracens were the quickest out of the block, dotting down for the first try of the match in the corner through Ben Harris on five minutes.

The visitors got their second try of the afternoon 10 minutes later. Tom Mills slid over and, after the conversion was missed, they led 0-12.

No more points were scored in the first half, with both sides struggling to keep the ball in hand and get a grasp on the game.

Just before the hour mark, Obinna Nkocha got on the end of a Saracens’ break to grab their third try of the game. Manu Vunipola added the extras and they led 0-19.

Two minutes later, Irish got a try of their own. After driving over the Saracens’ tryline, the ball was ripped out and onto the floor. Moore-Aiono was the quickest to react, diving on the ball to get the Exiles on the scoreboard.

The hosts second try followed quickly. Rowe was shown a slim gap down the touchline and the winger needed no invitation to burst through it. The change of pace left the Saracens defender behind him as he sprinted over in the corner. The conversion was missed and the lead cut to 10-19.

However, with 10 minutes to go, Saracens got the final points of the match. Hooker Ethan Lewis was on the end of a well-worked line-out move and score in the corner.

Final score: London Irish A 10-24 Saracens Storm.