Exiles march to summit
London Irish destroyed Newcastle with a six-try blast at Kingston Park to move top of the Aviva Premiership.
Last Updated: 25/09/10 8:01pm
London Irish ran in six tries to demolish Newcastle Falcons 46-12 at Kingston Park and move top of the Aviva Premiership.
Topsy Ojo alerted the England selectors with a hat-trick and Jonathan Joseph scored two with Dan Bowden also getting in on the act.
Newcastle gifted Irish their opening try in the ninth minute when Alex Tait spilled the ball in attack and Delon Armitage swept it up.
Armitage kicked ahead with Tait out of position and surged past Gcobani Bobo before snapping up the ball and sending in Ojo for the score converted by Ryan Lamb.
Ojo was back again for his second in the 15th minute when Seilala Mapusua's sublime offload sent the winger cutting infield and, while there was a hint of obstruction on a Newcastle defender, it was a marvellous try converted by Lamb for 14-0.
Newcastle had hardly seen the ball for the first 25 minutes but when they did they scored a cracking try though Jimmy Gopperth.
Powerful
It came on the back of some powerful driving from the Falcons pack prompted by scrum-half Micky Young's pop passes and Tim Ryan almost got there before Young swept it out to his fly-half, whose curving run took him behind the posts. Gopperth also converted to make it 14-7.
Right on half-time Armitage skinned Bobo and sent Joseph clear and the winger skipped past Charles Amesbury's despairing cover tackle to score.
Lamb missed an early second-half penalty but then kicked two in three minutes and another sublime offload from Mapusua brought the bonus try from Bowden converted by Lamb as early as the 55th minute.
Ojo again cruised through the middle for his third and Lamb converted before Joseph grabbed his second try courtesy of an interception.
Lamb's conversion made it 46-7 before Tait dived over for the Falcons' second try with two minutes left.
