Powerful Clifton make it four on the trot

LI Wild Geese 17 Clifton .............. 29

CLIFTON produced an assured second-half performance to withstand a brave London Irish fightback and claim their fourth consecutive league win.

William Pomphrey got the scoring started for the visitors by touching down at the back of a maul, Bradley Barnes converting for a 7-0 lead.

Clifton then went the length of the field almost immediately from the restart, with Mitchell Spencer finishing a fine team move, before Bentley Halpin finished smartly after more fine build-up play from the backs.

Barnes converted for a commanding 19-0 lead after just 11 minutes, but three London Irish scores in 15 minutes threatened to flip the script.

First Ross Parsons produced a show-and-go from scrum-half, shrugging off a tackle to get his team on the board, Alexander Seers converting to make it 7-19.

Minutes later, George Drye crashed over from short range before a crossfield kick from Seers was brilliantly claimed and grounded by Bradley Meeson to reduce the deficit to two at half-time.

Clifton leaned on their dominant scrum in the second half, and found the bonus-point score their performance deserved on the hour mark, when David Hill drove over the line.

Christopher Levesley added the extras, along with a short-range penalty minutes later, and the visitors’ defence held firm to complete a fine victory.