Llanelli survives London Irish battle

London Irish 25 Llanelli 32

Llanelli survived a rousing second-half fightback from London Irish to open their Heineken Cup campaign with a maximum five-point haul at the Madejski Stadium.

Dafydd Jones, Simon Easterby, Iestyn Thomas and Mark Jones crossed to leave the Exiles looking dead and buried heading into the final quarter.

But Irish ran in three quickfire tries through Phil Murphy, Seilala Mapusa and Delon Armitage as Llanelli took their foot off the pedal to blow the match wide open.

The Exiles poured forward in the closing moments in search of the converted try that would earn a dramatic share of the spoils but Llanelli hung on.

Phil Davies, the Llanelli head coach, will be shaking his head at how his side managed to squander such a big lead – especially after they produced all of the match’s best moments until the last 20 minutes.

Earlier in the week Irish had lamented the four-day turnaround enforced upon them following Sunday’s clash with Guinness Premiership leaders Sale.

But their shortage of preparation time appeared to have little effect on them tonight as by the final whistle there was only one team in it, although Llanelli had already done enough to clinch victory.

Llanelli, who looked the far more dynamic team in attack until the last quarter, sounded their intention from the whistle with centre Gavin Evans bundled into touch by Mapusa five metres from the line.

Referee Romain Poite spoke to both skippers after the first scrum erupted into a mini brawl with Irish hooker David Paice penalised for starting the fight.

Stephen Jones nudged the penalty wide but Llanelli stepped up the pressure with Ceiron Thomas making a searing break only for his pass to be intercepted by Topsy Ojo.

With the visitors’ initial flurry seen off, Irish settled and made inroads into opposition territory which was rewarded with a Barry Everitt penalty.

Wales scrum-half Dwayne Peel made a darting run which swept him past three Exiles but there was no support and the move came to and end.

Stephen Jones levelled the score with a penalty as the momentum continued to shift with Irish’s cause taking a blow when openside Declan Danaher was sin-binned for straying offside and disrupting Peel.

Everitt landed his second penalty but the Exiles’ line was breached in the 34th minute with a loose kick from Paul Hodgson starting Llanelli’s move.

Ceiron Thomas returned the chip ahead with interest, the ball was recycled and fed to Regan King who showed quick hands to send Dafydd James in at the right corner.

Stephen Jones converted despite the difficulty of the kick to give Llanelli a 10-6 half-time lead they stretched just seven minutes after interval.

Irish’s line came under sustained pressure as Llanelli attempted to batter their way through up front and eventually Easterby succeeded with Jones adding the extras.

Winger Mark Jones piled on the misery for the Exiles, who were in danger of being swamped, by taking King’s pass and rounding Ojo in the tightest of spaces and easily winning the race to the line.

The bonus point was sealed in the 60th minute when prop Iestyn Thomas barged over from close range but Irish stemmed the tide with a try of their own with Phil Murphy driven over from a line-out.

The Exiles scented a remarkable comeback was on the cards as Mapusa dashed 40 yards to cross and Llanelli’s cause was not helped when Nathan Thomas was yellow-carded for tackling in the air.

Armitage touched down on the right as Irish capitalised on a two-man overlap but they could not add to the score again.