DAVID PAICE’S special day was made all the more memorable as he scored a second half try in London Irish’s dominant bonus-point win over London Welsh at Madejski Stadium.
All the pre-match build-up focused on club legend Paice, who skippered the side for his 250th appearance in Exiles green with his side looking for a sixth win out of six games this season.
After a string of Tommy Bell penalties and Fergus Mulchrone try, Paice pushed Irish 21-0 ahead shortly after the restart, crashing over following a powerful drive.
Within minutes the Exiles scored another similar try, capitalising from a line-out before Sebastian De Chaves got his name on the score-sheet while Brendan McKibbin sealed the bonus point, putting the hosts 35-0 up.
Welsh bagged two late consolation tries but the afternoon belonged very much to Paice and Irish as they cemented top spot in the Greene King IPA Championship.
As expected Paice skippered the side and was given a rapturous reception as he made his way out alone with his children to mark his astounding personal achievement.
The Irish line-up was as announced with Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, Max Northcote-Green and Tom Fowlie dropping out from the win over Nottingham to be replaced by Tom Court, Blair Cowan and Ciaran Hearn respectively.
In what had been branded by many as the toughest test of the season so far for Nick Kennedy’s charges, the early part of the ‘Battle of the Exiles’ was dominated by a string of penalties with referee Christophe Ridley awarding most the way of Welsh.
The visitors kicked for the corner as they sought to take a shock lead, but a brilliant turnover and break led by Scott Steele relieved pressure and put Irish on the front foot.
But back came the Dragons with another kick to within 10 metres but this time Irish were awarded a penalty themselves following an infringement in the ruck.
With around quarter of an hour on the clock the deadlock was broken when Bell lined up a central kick from around 40 metres and made no mistake.
That lead quickly became 6-0 through another Bell kick before the fly half made it three from three after Welsh were penalised at the scrum.
And Bell was at the heart of the matter as the first try of the contest eventually arrived on the half hour mark.
The former Leicester Tigers man produced a fantastic kick towards the corner giving Irish a line-out 10 metres from the line.
And from the resulting set piece the ball was worked back to Bell, who clipped over the top for Mulchrone to race through and dab down.
Rather than going for another kick at goal, Bell went for the corner from a penalty just before the break and again found touch less than 10 metres from the try line.
However, the hosts were penalised from the resulting driving maul meaning Kennedy’s men went in 16-0 up at half-time.
And that lead was quickly extended after the interval via the man everyone had come to see.
From Paice’s line-out, the hooker was on hand to crash over after a powerful drive from the five-metre line to the delight of the fans.
The score extended to 28-0 from a similar try with De Chaves this time the man to bag the
points at the bottom of a pile of bodies.
From there Irish pushed hard for the bonus point, although did have to survive a 10-metre line-out from Welsh as they looked for tries rather than going for kicks at goal.
Exiles did cross the line but no try was awarded so they had to work the ball from the scrum and then line-out with replacement McKibbin pouncing on a Welsh error to seal the team’s crucial fourth try.
The visitors did at least get on the scoreboard in the closing stages after good work on the wing with Kristian Phillips crossing, but their luck was out from the conversion with Glyn Hughes’ kick hitting both the post and bar before staying out.
Welsh reduced the deficit further in the final few minutes when Rob Lewis crossed following a sharp offload by Lovejoy Chawatama but the game had long been in the bag.
LONDON IRISH: Marshall, Ojo (Fowlie 48-60 (74)), Hearn, Mulchrone, Tikoirotuma, Bell, Steele (McKibbin 60), Court (Elrington 65), Paice (c) (Harris-Wright 71), Franks (Hoskins 55), Robson, De Chaves, Coman (Trayfoot 55), Cowan, Treviranus (Lloyd 60).
Tries: Mulchrone (30), Paice (44), De Chaves (54), McKibbin (65)
Cons: Bell x3
Pens: Bell (15,18,26)
LONDON WELSH: Thomas, Phillips, Stevens, Jewell, Mantella, Hughes, Glynn (Lewis 55), Marfo (Morris 45), Kwasnicki (Hallam 45), Cooper, Maddison, Thomas Brown (Woolford 29), Pienaar, Hodson (c), Murphy.
Tries: Phillips (73), Lewis (80)
Con: Hughes
Referee: Christophe Ridley
Attendance: 4,025
