London Irish (9) 15
Pens: Malone 4, Homer
Harlequins (9) 9
Pens: Clegg 3

London Irish climbed above opponents Harlequins in the Premiership with a 15-9 victory at the Madejski Stadium.

Chris Malone opened the scoring for Exiles with the first of four penalties before Rory Clegg struck two.

Malone added two more kicks and Clegg one more for Quins before the sides turned round with the score even.

Tom Homer put Irish ahead before Jordan Turner-Hall was sin-binned for Quins and Malone extended the lead despite Paul Hodgson also seeing yellow.

It was a dull match but one that Irish will be delighted to win nonetheless after their wretched run of results this year.

Malone, facing his former club, landed his first penalty after Will Skinner was penalised for offside.

But with 10 minutes on the clock Clegg had put his side 6-3 ahead after Irish infringed twice.

Joe Marler escaped a yellow card for a deliberately knock down but Malone was off-target with his resulting penalty attempt.

But the Exiles' stand-off soon made up for it when Quins were penalised at the scrum on 25 minutes.

Exiles shaded the opening half-hour exchanges with Daniel Bowden producing two notable breaks but it was Malone who kept the scoreboard ticking over with another kick.

Harlequins' full-back Mike Brown produced the moment of the first half when he ghosted past two opponents inside his own 22 to set up a flowing Quins move.

It won his side another penalty and Clegg pulled the scores level for half time at 9-9.

After the break both sides struggled for dominance in the opening 10 minutes before Homer was successful with his penalty.

Seilala Mapasua came closest to scoring a try for the hosts with a chip through before Turner-Hall was sin-binned for being offside at a ruck.

Malone was on target with the resulting penalty on 63 minutes before he was replaced by Ryan Lamb.

The former Gloucester man had to almost immediately fall in as scrum-half after Hodgson was sent from the field but Exiles played out the remaining minutes without worry.

London Irish head coach Toby Booth said:
"Sure enough it wasn't a good game to watch but I'm really not bothered about that as it is all about picking up four points.

"We gained the edge in both the set scrum and line-out and put the pressure on them in those areas.

"It was a solid enough platform and we seem to have got through the barren bit to now reward our fans."

Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea:
"It wasn't a good game of rugby which was a pity for the spectators.

"The penalties killed us. Our ill-discipline cost us and we will have to address it.

"We could have nicked it but effectively we were kicked out of the game."

London Irish: Homer; Ojo, Mapusua, Bowden, Thompstone; Malone, Hodgson; Dermody, Buckland, Rautenbach, Kennedy, Casey, Gibson, S Armitage, Stowers.
Replacements: Joseph for Homer (67), Lamb for Malone (63), Allinson for Hodgson (75), Ion for Rautenbach (69), Roche for Casey (46), Thorpe for S Armitage (69).
Not Used: Herring, Lahiff.

Sin Bin: Hodgson (64).

Harlequins: Brown; Williams, Monye, Turner-Hall, Lindsay-Hague; Clegg, Moore; Marler, Gray, Johnston, Kohn, Browne, Fa'asavalu, Skinner, Robshaw.
Replacements: Chisholm for Lindsay-Hague (60), Jones for Marler (53), York for Fa'asavalu (70).
Not Used: Brooker, Lambert, Vallejos, Urdapilleta, Casson.

Sin Bin: Turner-Hall (61).

Att: 8,776

Ref: Sean Davey (RFU).

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