LONDON IRISH cruised into the Championship play-off final by rounding off their clash with Doncaster Knights 74-25 on aggregate.
While the first leg was dominated by the Exiles last weekend, winning 35-3, the second was far more competitive with Nick Kennedy’s charges running out 39-22 winners on the day.
First half tries from David Paice and Alex Lewington set the tone with further scores from Ben Franks and Dave Porecki during a dominant early second half spell.
And Scott Steele rounded off the win in the dying seconds with the hosts’ fifth try of the day.
To their credit, Knights battled until the end and played their part in an exciting contest at Madejski Stadium, but it is Irish who will face Yorkshire Carnegie in the two-legged final with a spot back in the Premiership up for grabs.
Irish, naming an unchanged side from last week’s comprehensive first leg victory, piled on the pressure around the Doncaster 22 from the start, but some sloppy handling kept the first 10 minutes scoreless.
A Bell grubber kick and good work from Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi also passed without score.
However, a trademark line-out and drive saw Paice crash over to start the ball rolling.
But Doncaster fought back, quickly bagging a try of their own courtesy of Jack Ram after a close-range line-out.
The advantage was soon restored when a good kick through from Fergus Mulchrone put Knights on the back foot. The ball was eventually worked to Lewington on the left, who continued his hot streak, finding a gap to dab down.
Dougie Flockhart’s impressive penalty kept Doncaster honest as they battled back from trailing 17-8 to 17-15 at the break.
After an initial try claim was dismissed by the television match official, the visitors kicked to the corner and found Matt Challinor to score, with Flockhart adding the extras.
While the first half turned into a tight affair, Exiles turned the screw after the restart, penning Knights back into their own half.
And the hosts got their third try of the afternoon just three minutes into the second period as World Cup winner Franks crashed over.
The points just kept on coming with Bell kicking over a penalty before Lewington came agonisingly close to scoring his second try of the day, but the ball was just out of his reach.
However, replacement Porecki scored only three minutes after coming on, with Bell’s conversion extending the advantage to 32-15 on the afternoon.
Doncaster had struggled to make much of an attacking impact for the entirety of the second period, but were rewarded for a rare foray into the Irish half, scoring their third try courtesy of Joe Sproston.
A flurry of changes from both sides disrupted the flow of the contest, but there was time for one last try as replacement scrum-half Steele found a gap to tap the ball down on the line to seal a 74-25 aggregate victory.
Irish will travel to take on Yorkshire on Wednesday May 17 before the return leg at Madejski Stadium on Wednesday May 24.
LONDON IRISH: Bell, Lewington, Tikoirotuma, Mulchrone, Cokanasiga (Tonks 40), Marshall, McKibbin (Steele); Hobbs-Awoyemi (Court), Paice (c) (Porecki 62), Franks (Hoskins 60), De Chaves (Robson), Sinclair, Coman (Gilsenan), Cowan, Treviranus.
Tries: Paice (11), Lewington (22), Franks (43), Porecki (65), Steele (80)
Cons: Bell x4
Pens: Bell x2 (31,54)
DONCASTER: Jarvis, Flockhart, Bulumakau, Hayes, Lewis, Humberstone (Cusack), Heaney (Edgerley); List (Bergmanas), Hunter (Nelson), John (Sproston), Challinor (Nolan), Williams, Ram, Hills (Carpenter), Shaw.
Tries: Ram (19), Challinor (35), Sproston (70)
Cons: Flockhart x2
Pens: Flockhart (26)
Referee: Matthew O’Grady
Attendance: 4,644
