Bristol (0) 13
Try: Eves Con: Barnes Pens: Barnes 2

London Irish (11) 18
Tries: Tagicakibau, Geraghty Con: Hewat Pens: Hewat 2

Geraghty crosses for the vital try at the Memorial Stadium

London Irish moved to the top of the Premiership table after fly-half Shane Geraghty sealed a comeback victory over Bristol with a 68th-minute try.

The Exiles dominated the opening period and led 11-0 at the break, Peter Hewat kicking two penalties and wing Sailosi Tagicakibau scoring in the 27th minute.

Bristol hit back in the second half and went 13-11 ahead with a Luke Eves try and eight points from Ed Barnes's boot.

But Geraghty had the last word to give Irish their fifth straight league win.

The win puts Irish level on points with Gloucester but ahead of them on points difference.

Bristol gave scrum-half Shaun Perry his first start since he returned from a long-term injury but he could not inspire his side to their second Premiership victory of the season.

And the result leaves Richard Hill's men rooted to the bottom of the table, three points adrift of Newcastle.

606: DEBATE The reason that Irish are top of the league is quite simple, it is called working together exileray

The first half was a dour affair with both sides making handling mistakes and the boot dominating.

Hewat put Irish 6-0 ahead with two penalties in the first 24 minutes before Tagicakibau ran in from 40m after evading attempted tackles from Perry and opposite wing Lee Robinson.

Bristol lacked ideas in the opening period but they got on the scoreboard within two minutes of the second-half, Barnes landing a 40m penalty.

And they reduced the deficit to just one point when Barnes got the ball in midfield, cross-kicked for Robinson to tussle with Ojo before full-back Luke Arscott took possession and fed centre Eves.

The home side took the lead for the first time with Barnes's second penalty on 65 minutes but just two minutes later, his pass was intercepted by Geraghty and the England prospect had the easy task of running in from halfway.

Bristol had a chance to claim victory when they were awarded a penalty with just five minutes left but after going for a line-out rather than a pop at goal, they were penalised at the throw-in.

Bristol head coach Richard Hill:
"Normally, I would say the better team won but, on this occasion, we deserved to win that and I feel very sorry for the players, they put a lot of effort into that second half, particularly.

"They had it well under control and the only time that Irish actually got the ball is when we gave it to them on a plate. It happens but it is our own fault.

"We are bitterly disappointed and sometimes you wonder what you have got to do to win a game. Lady Luck is probably not on our side at the moment but we are partly responsible for that ourselves.

"We will keep battling away and, hopefully, we will get those little narrow wins we need.

"At 11-0, you could almost sense that Irish thought that was not enough. At half-time, all the players thought it was achievable to peg back that lead. The crowd got behind us and, really, there was only one team in it then.

"And we had the game under control until that interception try which was a bit cruel when you see a team which are top of the league now and we dominated them for 40 minutes."

London Irish head coach Toby Booth:
"It feels like a bit of a loss, to be honest. All credit to Bristol, they were very good.

"In the second half, every time we got to the halfway line, we gave the ball back. We certainly didn't make life easy for ourselves and we probably needed to be more clinical in the first half. Then the whole thing would have been a different game.

"Rugby is a simple game. If you control the ball, it is simple. You push the balls into the corner and the people who do that better and control the game are often the ones that come out on top.

"They scored first straight after half-time and we said the first score then would be vital and, as a result, we let them in the game. Fair play to them, they are very committed. But I do want our boys to kick on and achieve the best they can."

Bristol: L Arscott; Robinson, Brew, Eves, Lemi; Barnes, Perry; Clarke, Regan, Crompton, Winters, Sidoli, To'oala, El Abd, Ward-Smith.
Replacements: Sambucetti for Winters (11).
Not Used: Linklater, Bracken, R. Pennycook, Beveridge, Jarvis, T Arscott.

London Irish: Hewat; Ojo, Seveali'i, Mapusua, Tagicakibau; Geraghty, Hodgson; Dermody, Paice, Lea'aetoa, Roche, Casey, Danaher, S Armitage, Hala'ufia.
Replacements: Homer for Geraghty (69), Corbisiero for Dermody (57), Johnson for Roche (57), Thorpe for Hala'ufia (57).
Not Used: Buckland, Lalanne, Gower.

Att: 6,225

Ref: W Barnes (RFU).

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