Irish 0 Braves 36

[break]

London Irish 0

Exeter Braves 36

Mark Stevens at Hazelwood

Exeter Braves remain on course for a place in the semi-finals of this season’s Aviva Premiership A League after they collected their fourth win of the campaign at London Irish on Monday night.

Ricky Pellow’s side were in impressive form, running in six tries during a dominant 36-0 display at Irish’s impressive training base at Hazelwood.

Hooker Shaun Malton set them on their way with an early touchdown and he was followed over the line by fly-half Will Hooley as the visitors led 10-0 at the break.

With the elements in their favour for the second period, the Braves dominated proceedings adding further tries through Haydn Thomas, Ben White, Elvis Taione and Joe Simmonds.

Hooley slotted a further two conversions, while England Under-20s starlet Simmonds converted his own score just past the hour mark.

The victory means the Braves sit second in the table, two points behind defending champions Saracens Storm whose 28-21 victory over Harlequins meant the latter have slipped to third place, also on 20 points, but having concluded all of their fixtures.

The Braves will wrap up their Southern Group fixtures on Monday, April 11 when they play host to Wasps at Sandy Park.

Reflecting on his side’s display, a delighted Pellow (pictured) said: “I’m massively pleased for that group of players. We talked beforehand about the fact that for a few of the guys they’ve not played for a while, but we wanted them to go out and just ‘let it all out’.

“In testing conditions I don’t think we could have asked for anymore from the guys. It took a while for us to break Irish down, but once we did I thought our attacking philosophy really came through, as did our desire not to let them break our line.

“The physicality we showed, especially at the breakdown, was incredible and that in turn gave us the go forward to really attack them.

“This win has now put us in a great position to book a semi-final place and as a group we’re now really looking forward to finishing the job off against Wasps in a couple of weeks’ time.”

Irish: C Lewis-Pratt; T Farrell, T Fowlie (L Sampson 40), T Halse, J Cokanasiga; S Geraghty (capt, R Neal h/t), D Allinson (C Murphy h/t); J Harris (H Eldrington 58), G Ellis (J Stevens 58), G Cross (J Tarrant 62); O Curry, D Sisi; T Preece, J Trayfoot (L Frost 73), T Guest (I Curtis Harris 73).

Yellow Card: Trayfoot

Braves: C Botha (H Cully 32); B McGuigan, M Bodilly, T Hendrickson, M Jess; W Hooley (J Simmonds 60), H Thomas (S Townsend 51); B Sturgess (J Woolmore 48), S Malton (E Taione 54), C Rimmer (A Brown 60); L Stevenson (E Holmes 65), S Skinner (capt); S Simmonds (D Swain 66), B White, T Johnson.

Tries – Malton, Hooley, Thomas, White, Taione, J Simmonds; Conversions – Hooley (2), J Simmonds

Referee: G Holsgrove

Attendance: 220