In what was largely a one sided contest London Irish blew The Dragons away by being 24-0 up with only twenty minutes gone on the clock following tries from De Vedia (2) and Mike Catt and had secured the bonus point inside 29 minutes.
The Dragons went into the game full of confidence following their performance in Perpignan but errors cost them dear as London Irish pounced on every Dragons mistake and punished them.
The Dragons started brightly and nearly scored a try through Luke Charteris but he was bundled into touch and after that it was all London Irish for most of the remaining half although Michael Owen did score for the home side just before half time.
In the second half lock and man of the match Nick Kennedy scored a try early on. Steve Jones did grab a consolation try for The Dragons but London Irish had the final say with Armitage intercepting a pass and raced clear under the posts for the try which just added to The Dragons misery.
Speaking after the game Paul Turner said, “We started well and it seemed easier not to score. But then we went to sleep, gave away tries and suddenly the game was gone. We didn’t take our chances early one and, instead of being seven points up, we were suddenly seven points down. That’s European rugby. We came up against a side who suddenly hit their straps for the first time this season and blew us away. Their finishing was far better than ours.”
