Gloucester move away from Aviva Premiership relegation zone

LONDON IRISH 19, GLOUCESTER 22
London Irish scores: Tries: Mulchrone, Sheridan 2. Cons: Humphreys, Geraghty.
Gloucester scores: Tries: May. Cons: Twelvetrees. Pens: Twelvetrees 4, F Burns.

Gloucester moved away from the Aviva Premiership relegation zone with a deserved win over London Irish in a poor game at the Madejski Stadium.

The game only came alive in the last 10 minutes when the home side staged a late rally – but they left themselves with too much to do and Gloucester just hung on.

Despite being outscored by three tries to one, 14 points from the boot of Billy Twelvetrees, three more from Freddie Burns and a solitary try from Jonny May was enough to win the battle between two sides badly lacking in confidence.

Gloucester had the better of the game in terms of territory and possession and should have won by a greater margin. Their pack dominated for much of the contest with Ben Morgan producing a much improved performance, which allowed Twelvetrees to control matters with some skilful kicking.

Were gifted
Irish were gifted an early try for Fergus Mulchrone but despite another two from former Leinster player Eamonn Sheridan in the second half, they were disappointing and could still face a relegation battle, despite leading bottom club Worcester – who they face on Saturday – by 10 points.

The hosts toiled. Without Chris Hala’ufia, their forwards lacked any bite, they made plenty of unforced errors and Ian Humphreys missed two kickable penalties at vital stages.

Irish had intended to give a debut to South African international prop CJ Van Der Linde – but he aggravated a previous calf injury in the warm-up, which meant a call-up for Leo Halavatau.

Shane Geraghty had a late chance to equalise for Irish but sent his penalty wide.

LONDON IRISH: O'Connor, Ojo, Mulchrone, Sheridan, Lewington, Humphreys, O'Leary, Parr, Stevens, Halavatau, Skivington, Gough, Low, Treviranus, Cowan. Replacements: Fenby for Ojo (78), Geraghty for Humphreys (49), Sinclair for Parr (53), Yapp for Stevens (53), Hagan for Halavatau (41), Rouse for Gough (41), Mayhew for Cowan (53). Not Used: Hoadley.
GLOUCESTER: Cook, Sharples, Trinder, Tindall, May, Twelvetrees, Cowan, Wood, Dawidiuk, Puafisi, Stooke, Hudson, Cox, Kvesic, B. Morgan. Replacements: M. Thomas for Cook (74), Y. Thomas for Tindall (57), Robson for Cowan (62), F. Burns for Wood (57), Knight for Puafisi (62), James for Hudson (71). Not Used: Edmonds, G. Evans. Att: 8,306
Referee: Andrew Small (RFU).