Lamb leads Exiles to victory
Ryan Lamb produced a man-of-the-match display as he orchestrated London Irish's emphatic 40-10 victory over former club Gloucester.
Last Updated: 13/09/09 6:47pm
Ryan Lamb produced a man-of-the-match display as he orchestrated London Irish's emphatic 40-10 victory over former club Gloucester.
The 23-year-old fly-half was shown the door at Kingsholm over the summer and came back to haunt his old employers with a stylish a 20-point haul.
Winger Sailosi Tagicakibau ran in two tries for the Exiles who were also awarded a late penalty try, while Delon Armitage also touched down although the England full-back was unable to complete the game after injuring his left wrist just past the hour mark.
Lamb kicked all four conversions and also added four penalties, while Gloucester's only try came courtesy of winger Charlie Sharples.
Irish were dominant from the off although they did fall behind to an early penalty from Nick Robinson.
Lamb responded in kind on 12 minutes and the hosts hit the front ten minutes later when Armitage collected a bouncing ball to score the game's first try.
The England star had earlier spurned a great opportunity after spilling the ball with the line at his mercy, but made amends as he took advantage of hesitancy from Olly Morgan and Scott Lawson to claim Tagicakibau's kick ahead.
Lamb added the conversion and another penalty to extend the lead while Robinson failed with two penalties of his own as points went begging for Gloucester.
Big lead
Indeed, the visitors were all but out of it by half-time as they fell 23-3 behind, the Exiles taking advantage of Sharples' sin-binning to run in their second try - Lamb setting up Tagicakibau to score in the corner.
A fourth Lamb penalty shortly into the second half hammered another nail into Gloucester's coffin, although they were offered some hope when Chris Hala'ufia was shown a yellow card for killing the ball.
The hosts defended stoically to preserve their commanding lead, but their line was finally breached when Sharples capitalised on a missed tackle by Paul Hodgson to nip over with Robinson landing the conversion.
But any hopes of a sustained fightback were soon crushed as Akapusi Qera was sent to the sin-bin with referee Dean Richards awarding Irish a penalty try shortly afterwards as Gloucester struggled at a scrum.
Tagicakibau then rubbed salt in the visitors' wounds as he cruised over for his second of the afternoon moments later, but the match ended on a sour note as a large fight broke out in the closing stages which eventually saw Gareth Delve and George Stowers also sent to the sin-bin.
