Exiles end on a high

Tom Homer: The full-back was in fine form with the boot for London Irish

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Teams

• Gloucester
• London Irish

London Irish produced a thrilling six-try 52-18 demolition of Gloucester to end their season in style at the Madejski Stadium.

Neither side headed into the match in good form, although the Exiles had narrowly beaten Worcester a week earlier to end a seven defeats.

And it was the hosts who took a stranglehold on this contest within the the first 15 minutes. Four Tom Homer penalties got the Exiles off the mark, though Gloucester responded with a three-pointer of their own courtesy of Freddie Burns.

The visitors then went on to cross for the game's first try, with Tom Voyce crossing the line in the 23rd minute for a score that Burns couldn't convert.

That put Gloucester within four points of the Exiles and it would prove to be the closest they'd get to their hosts, who kicked a further penalty and crossed for three tries to establish a handsome half-time lead.

Darren Allinson, Sailosi Tagicakibau and Jonathon Joseph were the men to get over the line, with Homer converting two of the three tries and Burns adding a second penalty for Gloucester to make it 34-11 at the interval.

There was drama seven minutes into the second half when Irish's David Paice and Gloucester's Jim Hamilton were both shown red cards for fighting, although Homer settled home nerves ten minutes later with a penalty goal. T

Time was running out for Gloucester and the home side further extended their lead in the final quarter thanks to unconverted tries from Marland Yarde, who grabbed two, and Delon Armitage.

Although it was the visitors who had the final say with a late consolation try from Voyce.

The scorers:

For London Irish:
Tries: Allinson, Armitage, Joseph, Tagicakibau, Yarde 2
Cons: Homer 2
Pens: Homer 6

For Gloucester:

Tries: Voyce 2
Cons: Burns
Pens: Burns 2

London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Delon Armitage, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Joe Ansbro, 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10 Steve Shingler, 9 Darren Allinson, 8 Ofisa Treviranus 7 David Sisi, 6 Jamie Gibson, 5 Bob Casey (Captain), 4 Bryn Evans, 3 Leo Halavatau, 2 David Paice, 1 Max Lahiff.
Replacements: 16 James Buckland, 17 Paulica Ion, 18 Faan Rautenbach, 19 Matt Garvey, 20 Kieran Roche, 21 Marland Yarde, 22 Adrian Jarvis, 23 Paul Hodgson

Gloucester: 15 Tom Voyce, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Jonny May, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 Ollie Phillips, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Dave Lewis, 8 Matt Cox, 7 Alasdair Strokosch, 6 Tom Savage, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Jim Hamilton (capt), 3 Rupert Harden, 2 Darren Dawidiuk, 1 Dan Murphy.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 Peter Buxton, 20 Akapusi Qera, 21 Dan Robson, 22 Tim Taylor, 23 Ian Clark