Exiles beat champions Leicester

London Irish 27 Leicester 7

The consistent boot of fly-half Barry Everitt handed London Irish a crucial victory over reigning Zurich Premiership champions Leicester Tigers.

The Irishman, who have now scored 1,018 points for the Reading side in 69 outings, successfully booted 17 points and snatched a last-gasp try to help secure the win.

London Irish may still only have three Premiership wins under their belt this season, but the victory will have worked wonders for the team’s morale after a disastrous start to the season.

Everitt opened his account with a first-minute penalty.

Both teams struggled with the rain-soaked conditions at the Madejski Stadium - at the game got the go-ahead at 11am following heavy overnight rain.

There were handling errors aplenty and it was not until the dying minutes of the first half that the game got going again.

Everitt converted a second penalty to break the thousand-point barrier, but it was Leicester who took the lead at the break with a 40th-minute try.

The Tigers cleanly took a line-out in the Irish 22 and the ball was played out to fly-half Sam Vesty who fed Ollie Smith for a try. Steve Booth converted.

Everitt put Irish back in charge soon after the re-start with a third penalty.

He then eased them further ahead with a 69th-minute penalty before landing an impressive 73rd-minute drop goal.

Not content with his tally of 15 points, Everitt then snatched an 84th-minute try thanks to a clever chip from scrum-half Darren Edwards.

Full-back Michael Horak then rounded off the afternoon with a second converted try minutes later.