The Rugby Paper

Dominant Irish pack paves way for Steele hat-trick

- ■ By DARAGH SMALL

LONDON Irish’s impressive victory over Connacht was built on the back of a dominant forward display.

The visitors were utterly in control and made it five wins from five in the competitio­n with scrum-half Sam Steele scoring a hattrick in the first-half. Ross Neal scored two tries, and Senitiki Nayalo and Todd Gleave also touched down for the rampant London Irish.

Irish boss Nick Kennedy said: “We had a lot of changes and the boys did very well. Our forwards were excellent - our scrum was very dominant.”

London Irish held a 29-7 lead at half-time after using their physical prowess to overwhelm the hosts and hammer home their advantage in the set-piece.

Steele had his hat-trick by the 18th minute and two further tries from Neal gave Irish a 29-0 lead before Ciaran Gaffney scored a consolatio­n try for Connacht just before half-time.

The Exiles had four wins from four in this competitio­n prior to Saturday’s game, and they already beat Connacht Eagles 34-3 when the sides met in October. Kennedy’s side also had a 100 per cent record in the English Championsh­ip coming into this game and this continued to pile on the pressure after half-time.

Replacemen­t flanker Sean Masterson scored a try late on for the hosts, but Nayalo and Gleave had already pushed the margin further as London Irish soared clear at the top of Pool 3.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom