Quins banish Exiles at HQ

London Irish's crisis deepened as they crashed to their eighth straight defeat with a 28-18 loss to Harlequins at Twickenham on Monday.

Both sides appeared a little short on confidence for much of the match before it finally burst into life approaching the final quarter.

The first half descended into little more than a penalty trade-off as cynical play by the London Irish pack saw them repeatedly kill the ball at the breakdown.

The Exiles conceded 10 penalties to Quins' four during 40 first half minutes that stifled any promise the game showed of finding a spark.

They were much improved in the second half but Quins seemed to lose their own composure - conceding eight penalties to Irish's three - and looked in danger of letting Irish in until outside centre George Lowe sealed the win with a try 12 minutes from time.

Harlequins opened the scoring after five minutes when Nick Evans struck a simple penalty from under the sticks following some good pressure in the Exiles' 22.

Quins went perilously close minutes later when Tom Williams intercepted deep inside his own territory and set off on a magnificent break up the left touchline.