 | Bristol: (13) 20
Tries: Regan, Lewis
Cons: Strange 2
Pens: Strange 2 London Irish: (7) 21
Tries: Paice, Flutey, Tiesi
Cons: Flutey 3
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London Irish moved up to third in the Premiership after holding off Bristol away at the Memorial Stadium. The hosts kicked to a 6-0 lead before Exiles hooker David Paice squeezed through for a try. Mark Regan's try put Bristol 13-7 ahead by half-time but London hit back with tries by Riki Flutey and Gonzalo Tiesi. Number eight Geraint Lewis crossed over as Bristol enjoyed a spell of pressure late on but it was not enough to claim their first home win of 2006.
Bristol coach Richard Hill
"I think towards the end it was Irish who were hanging on and us who had our tails up. "But Irish are probably the in-form team at the moment and playing with confidence and it no disgrace to go down to them by one point. "If we can take that spirit in to the last five games then I think we will get better results than we did here. "It is still an interesting table and you just don't know at the moment which way it will go. "It looks like probably Newcastle could be dragged in to the relegation battle and even Northampton - and we have to play them both here." London Irish director of rugby Brian Smith
"I think when you score three tries you expect to win comfortably but we knew it was going to be a dockyard brawl only because Bristol have been able to muscle teams when they have come here. "When you look at their pack on paper against ourselves you would think that we would have the edge - but that wasn't the case in the first half. "I thought that after half-time when we got the breeze that we controlled filed position very well and I thought we executed extremely well."
Bristol: Going; Robinson, Higgitt, Cox, Stanojevic; Strange,
Perry; Hilton, Regan, Crompton; Blake, Llewellyn; Salter, Short, Ward-Smith.
Replacements: Hayes for Going (79), Lima for Cox (73), A Clarke for Hilton (73), Nelson for Regan (73), Lewis for Ward-Smith (69).
Not Used: Sambucetti, Nicholls. London Irish: Horak; Armitage, Pedro Tiesi, Catt, Tagicakibau; Flutey, Hodgson; Hatley, Paice, Rautembach; Casey; Kennedy; Roche, Dawson, Leguizamon.
Replacements: Bishop for Armitage (80), Collins for Hatley (40), Danaher for Kennedy (53), Russell for Roche (32), Thorpe for Leguizamon (55).
Not Used: Penney, Flavin, Gustard, Willis. Sin Bin: Paice (29). Att: 7,258 Referee: D Rose (RFU).
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