Irish edge dour affair

Chris Malone kicked four penalties as London Irish edged out Harlequins in a try-less clash at the Madjeski Stadium.

Tom Homer knocked over the other three-pointer for Irish, while Rory Clegg landed three for Harlequins.

Irish made a strong start and a clever kick through from Malone resulted in a five-metre scrum. From it Will Skinner was penalised for offside and Malone kicked his first penalty.

The lead was short lived as Clegg responded with a penalty and soon afterwards landed an excellent long range effort to give the visitors a 6-3 lead after 10 minutes.

However Quins quickly gave away another penalty at a scrum and Malone made no mistake with this kick to level it at 6-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Irish were shading a poor game in terms of territory and possession and Daniel Bowden did make a couple of strong runs to cause some concern to the Quins defence but they had to rely on Malone to kick another penalty to give them a deserved lead.

Quins full-back Mike Brown produced the most creative moment of a dull first half when he beat two players in his own 22 to send his side away on a flowing 40 metre movement. Irish were penalised and Clegg was again on target with his 45 metre kick.

For Irish Tom Homer hit a post with a penalty attempt from halfway and with the last kick of the half Malone did likewise with his 35 metre kick to make it 9-9 at the interval.

The opening 10 minutes of the second half mirrored the first half action, as Homer kicked Irish into the lead after 52 minutes.

Irish came nearest to scoring a try when a kick through from Seilala Mapusua narrowly escaped the clutches of Steffon Armitage as the flanker attempted to scoop up the ball to score.

Quins were then dealt a severe blow when Jordan Turner-Hall was sent to the sin bin for offside at the ruck and Malone was successful with the resulting penalty to give the hosts a 15-9 lead after 63 minutes.

Following his penalty success, Malone was immediately replaced by Ryan Lamb who within seconds was required to play at scrum half as Hodgson was sent to the sin bin.

But Quins - who had won 10 of their 11 matches before this game - were unable to improve on that impressive run.